Assessment of Medication Errors Among Anesthesia Clinicians in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Abstract

Introduction Anesthetic drugs are prepared and administrated without referral to the pharmacy or other medical departments. We aimed to assess the occurrence of anesthetic drug errors in Saudi Arabia. We also determined the contributing factors, reporting strategies, and clinicians' opinions of the preventive measures. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey study using a validated tool. A total of 300 anesthesia clinicians completed the survey (146 anesthesiologists and 154 anesthesia technology specialists). We measured descriptive statistics to describe the demographic characteristics and performed inferential statistics to examine associations and differences. Results Sixty-nine percent of respondents had experienced an anesthetic drug error at least once in their career. The two primary factors that caused drug errors were haste (60.3%) and heavy workload (60.3%). On syringe labeling, 56.3% withdrew the drug then labeled the syringe, and 43.7% labeled the syringe then withdrew the drug. The chi-square test revealed that clinicians who labeled the syringe first then withdrew the drug made errors more frequently (p = 0.036). The test also showed that clinicians with less experience had committed more errors (p = 0.015). On reporting drug errors, 77.7% of respondents identified the fear of medicolegal issues as the most common barrier to reporting errors. Respondents believed that double-checking the medication and color-coded syringe labels were the most effective strategies to reduce errors (82% and 64%, respectively). The Mann-Whiney U test revealed significant differences between the two specialties about their opinions of the preventive measures. Conclusions There was a high occurrence rate of anesthetic drug errors in Saudi Arabia. Policymakers need to unify the syringe-labeling practice, and future research needs to focus on what makes a nonpunitive culture to encourage reporting errors.

Medication errors in the practice of paediatric anaesthesia – a narrative review

“…Kaufmann et al [23] reviewed existing recommendations and current evidence on preventive strategies to enhance patient safety in paediatric anaesthesia and summarised the recommendations for reducing the rate of medication errors. Apart from the already accepted strategies, they highlighted the importance of specialist standards with expertise in paediatric anaesthesia to improve the competency needed for regular lectures and courses addressing awareness of drug safety to enhance vigilance and safety culture [24].…”

“…Martin et al . [ 24 ], at a freestanding Academic Children’s Hospital, undertook a five-year quality improvement project based on FMEA (failure mode effect analysis), which was initially used in the aviation industry. Every step involved in a procedure is deconstructed and carefully evaluated for possible errors that could lead to the failure of the intended procedure.…”