A comparative study of voluntarily reported medication errors among adult patients in intensive care (IC) and non- IC settings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

[OR = 5.24, 95 % CI: (4.12, 6.65); p < 0.001] and with patients' age ≥ 60 vs. < 60 years [OR = 1.48, 95 % CI: (1.19, 1.83

Medication Error During the Day and Night Shift on Weekdays and Weekends: A Single Teaching Hospital Experience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

“…12 The highest rate of MEs was 5.5% found in intensive care units (ICUs). 16 Most of MEs were for inpatient prescriptions. 17 For every 100 prescriptions, there were 1.5 medication errors.…”

“…13 The implementation of a "culture of safety" and "just culture" might help the staff to understand the importance of patient safety and further enhanced reporting of medication errors. 16 The health-care organization should adopt a program that enhances and promotes error reporting, based on transparency, confidentiality, and no-blame culture. 33 Electronic prescribing systems help to reduce medication errors, although they do not prevent all errors.…”

Understanding the Nature, Contributing Factors, and Corrective Actions of Medication Administration Errors: Insights from Saudi Arabia

“…Further, similar to other literature, the location of MAEs often occurred in intensive care units (ICU) and medical units. [16,28,45,46] The results of this study may be partially due to the greater frequency of medications being administered in the medical units compared to that in the ambulatory units. Further, underreporting of errors in surgery may offer another explanation as this underreporting by physicians has been reported elsewhere.…”

“…Similar to other studies, the majority of MAEs resulted in no or minimal harm. [7,16,28,49] However, a recent study conducted revealed that over half of the adverse drug events were significant (52.7%), with 37.1% being serious, 9% life-threatening, and 3% fatal. [28] Study results delineated that staff factors contributing to MAEs (e.g., staff not following policies and procedures [14,42] and heavy workloads [27] ) are similar to other results in the literature.…”

“…[11] Medication errors often occur at the prescribing stage of medication [2,[12][13][14] or administering stage of medication. [15][16][17][18] For example, a systematic review conducted in the Middle Eastern countries reported 7.1%-90.5% medication errors associated with prescribing the medication and 9.4%-80% medication errors associated with administering the medication. [4] Medication errors can have a negative impact on morbidity and mortality and can result in increased length of stay and costs.…”