Pharmacy and medical students are expected to be more knowledgeable regarding rational use of medications as compared to the general public. A cross-sectional study was conducted among students of pharmacy and medicine colleges of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam, Saudi Arabia using a survey questionnaire. The duration of the study was six months. The aim was to report self-medication prevalence of prescription and non-prescription drugs among pharmacy and medical students. The prevalence of self-medication in the pharmacy college was reported at 19.61%. Prevalence of self-medication at the medical college was documented at 49.3%. The prevalence of multivitamin use was reported at 30.53%, analgesics; 72.35%, antihistamines; 39.16%, and antibiotic use at 16.59%. The prevalence of anti-diarrheal medicines and antacids use among students was found to be 8.63% and 6.64%, respectively. The variable of college and study year was statistically associated with the nature of the medicines. The most common justifications given by students indulging in self-medication were ‘mild problems’ and ‘previous experience with medicines’. Our study reported that prevalence of self-medication in the College of Clinical Pharmacy was low, i.e., 19.61%. The figure has been reported for the first time. Students were mostly observed self-medicating with OTC drugs, however, some reported using corticosteroids and isotretenoin, which are quite dangerous if self-medicated. Students have a positive outlook towards pharmacists as drug information experts.

Objectives: Medication errors have a large impact on patient safety and on healthcare cost. Errors occur due to a combination of human and system-related failure. The pharmacist prevents all drug related problems. The objective of this study was to explore pharmacist intervention and prevented medication errors in Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology at a Tertiary Hospital in East Province, Saudi Arabia.Methods: This article describes 12 months retrospective cohort study of pharmacist intervention and prevented medication errors in year of 2015. This was a retrospective study conducted at 500-bed Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology in a Tertiary Hospital in East Province, Saudi Arabia. This system was a part of medication safety program. A tertiary hospital had medication safety officer with medication safety committee. All errors or unexpected events related with the medication system or a step in the medication process shall be reported using the medication error from/sheet. The form consisted of patient information, the sources of medication errors and qualification of committing errors. The type of medication errors, description of errors, causes of errors, approval to prevent the errors and the consequence of medication errors by using National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) system. Results: The total number of prevented medication errors were 1654 within 827 patients' prescriptions. The medication errors had been made by physicians followed by nurses. The sources of errors were general practitioner 631 (38.15 %) followed by consultant 554 (33.5%). The most common error was made in Pediatrics (1-month to 6 years) followed by young adults (18-40 years). An occurred error, most of the time was afternoon 872 (52.72%) errors followed by morning duty 685 (41.4%) errors. The majority kind of mistakes were prescriber-related 1216 (73.52%) followed by patient-related errors 426 (25.75%). The outcome of medication error was 1651 (99.82%) occurred which did not reach the patient. The most common medications involved in errors were Paracetamol syrup, iron tablet, folic acid tablet and calcium tablet. There were three errors for high-risk medication prohibited for instant: insulin, enoxaparin and heparin. Conclusion: This article presented the pharmacist's role in preventing medication errors, especially with pediatrics populations. Pharmacists have a crucial system-level role in planning and important medication safety programs and enhancement initiatives within health care organizations. The expanded role of pharmacists in preventing medication errors associated with patient safety programs and avoid the needless cost.

Objectives: Medication safety program started at Riyadh city of Ministry of Health in 2014. Identifying, resolving and preventing drug therapy problems are the unique contributions of the pharmaceutical care practitioner. The research aimed to estimate cost-efficiency of Medication Safety program at the hospital in East province, Saudi Arabia by using American model of pharmacist intervention cost avoidance. Methods: This cross-sectional study with a 9-month recruitment period was conducted in a 300-bed public hospital through preventing and documentation of medication errors in adults and pediatrics at Ministry of Health hospitals in 2015. The program led by trained pharmacist and delivered basic patient safety in medical education to all healthcare professionals. The predictable cost calculated using International Study Model, expressed in USD, the cost measured were the expected results of medication errors outcome if not stopped; starting from physician visit, additional laboratory test, further treatment, hospital admission and critical care admission to death stage. Results: The total number of prevented medication errors were 3,378 at 805 prescribed to 805 patients with an estimated cost avoidance of avoiding medication errors was (98,195.97 USD) for the study period and (10,910 USD) per month. The pharmacist avoided medication errors with estimated cost avoidance of drugrelated problem (29 USD) per each mistake and (122 USD) per prescription and patient. The most type inquiries estimated cost avoidance was prescribing stage 86,939.05 USD (99.86%), followed by drugrelated errors 7,061.26 USD (7.2%) and dosage form-related errors 6,084.98 USD (6.2%). The highest drug of cost avoidance were Musculoskeletal and joint disease (8,397.2 USD) followed by Infections (5,731.17 USD) and Nutrition (4,717.99 USD), while the largest drug of cost avoidance was Paracetamol Injection (5,812.17 USD), followed by oral Ferrous Sulfate (3,562.79 USD) and Ceftriaxone 1g (2,861.70 USD). Conclusion: Medication safety program is a cost-efficiency simulation at the public hospital in Saudi Arabia, prevents medication disasters, improve patient safety. Increasing drug safety program associated with preventing drug-related problems and cost avoidance simulation for Healthcare development and better care and better patient consequences.

Objectives: Medication safety program initiated at East Province of Ministry of Health in 2013. The pharmacist prevents all drug related problems. To improve continuity of care at hospital admission, discharge and to diminution medication errors medication safety programs are established. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the Medication Safety program at the hospital in East province, Saudi Arabia by using International Study Model. Methods: This cross-sectional study with a 12-month recruitment period was conducted in a 500-bed Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital through preventing and documentation of medication errors in adults and pediatrics at Ministry of Health hospitals in 2015. The hospital had medication safety officer with medication safety committee. The program led by trained pharmacist and delivered basic patient safety in medical education to all healthcare professionals. The expected cost calculated using International Study Model, expressed in United State Dollars (USD), the cost measured were the expected results of medication errors outcome if not stopped; starting from ambulatory care visit or community pharmacy, additional laboratory test, hospital or critical care admission or even death complications. Results: The total number of prevented medication errors were 2071 at 827 prescribed to 827 patients with an estimated cost avoidance of avoiding medication was (116,228.41 USD) annually. The most estimated cost avoidance was prescriber related and general errors was 99.12% (115.201.9 USD). The pharmacist avoided medication errors with estimated cost avoidance of drug related problem (140.54 USD) per each prescription and (56.12 USD) per error. The most common categories of medications cost avoidance were Musculoskeletal and joint disease (8,397.2 USD) followed by Infections (5,731.17 USD) and Nutrition class (4,717.99 USD). The highest drug of cost avoidance were Insulin injection (39,964.32 USD), iron tablet (11,526.9 USD) folic acid tablet (11,526.9 USD) and calcium tablet (11,526.9 USD) and Enoxaparin injection (9,637.02 USD). There were three high-risk medication founded with Insulin, Enoxaparin and Heparin errors with (42.9%) of annual total cost avoidance. Conclusion: Medication safety program is a cost-efficiency replication at Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Saudi Arabia, prevents medication misadventures, improve patient safety and education. Growing drug safety program related with preventing drug-related problems and cost avoidance replication for Healthcare improvement, better care and better patient consequences.

Methods: This is a 9-month cross-sectional study conducted at a 300-bed public hospital to evaluate pharmacist response and prevention of inpatient medication errors in adult and pediatric patients. There is a medication safety officer in the hospital along with a medication safety committee. The following information on medication errors were documented in the form available at the hospital: patient's demographic information, sources of medication errors, time of errors, type of errors, description of errors, causes of errors, recommendation to prevent such errors and the outcome of errors. The form was developed by using the National Coordinating Council (NCC) for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (MERP) system. Results: According to the results, the pharmacist prevented a total of 3089 medication errors within 805 patients. About 3.8 errors per prescription were prevented. Most of the prevention occurred during prescribing stage (705 (99.2%)). Patient-related errors (1564 (50.63%)) and prescriber-related errors (1435 (46.46%)) were the most type of prevented errors. Allergy was the most prevented subtype of errors (560 (91.4%)) followed by patient's body weight (543 (88.6%)) and prescriber data missing/unclear (347 (56.6%)). Most of the errors that were prevented were near miss (93.3%) followed by 6.3% of the errors that reached the patient but did not cause any harm. The highest percentage with respect to the causes of medication errors was missing clinical information (649 (83.7%)) and miscommunication of drug order (627 (80.9%)). The top 20 medications involved in medication errors were oral and intravenous injections (Paracetamol and enoxaparin injection, respectively). Conclusion: The pharmacist plays a very crucial role in preventing medication errors. In order to prevent medication errors and improve patient outcome, the pharmacist provides education to the healthcare professional about medication safety and establishes the intravenous medication guidelines.