Current situation of medication errors in Saudi Arabia: a nationwide observational study

Abstract

BackgroundMedication process complexity could cause confusion among healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients and lead to medication errors. This nationwide study aimed to characterize the types of medication errors and determine the error occurs in different stages of the medication process.MethodsThis was a retrospective observational study of medication errors reported by 265 government hospitals and primary care centers during the period of March 2018 to June 2019. The reported information include several aspects of medication errors, including patient information, medication information, error information, and the level of staff reporting and causing the error. The medication use process was categorized into ordering/prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administering, and monitoring. ResultsA total of 71,332 medication error reports were reported between March 2018 and June 2019. The reported errors involved patients aged <10 (12,1312; 17.3%) and >60 (8,857; 12.4%) years, and the medication error rate was estimated to be 0.15%. Errors were frequently made by physicians 63120 (88.5%) and frequently detected by pharmacists (75.9%). The majority of errors were detected at the prescribing stage (84.8%), followed by the transcribing (5.8%) and dispensing (5.7%) stages. A total of 4,182 (5.8%) errors reached the patient. Work overload of staff was associated with one-third of the reported errors (31.6%), and 22.7% of the errors were due to a lack of experience among HCPs.ConclusionsThe study highlights the concern regarding medication errors occurrence during different medication use process. Despite all efforts, prescribing stage is still a big concern as source of harm to the patients.

Towards an Application Helping to Minimize Medication Error Rate

“…Some scheduled shifts that may last longer than 8 or even 12 hours may not follow the traditional pattern of the day, evening, and night shifts [19]. Several studies showed the quantity of MEs being still high [22][23][24]. A study shows that nurses spend almost 45% of their work time performing medication therapy, with studies confirming that 59%-78% of MEs are associated with hospital staff nurses [23][24][25][26].…”

“…Several studies showed the quantity of MEs being still high [22][23][24]. A study shows that nurses spend almost 45% of their work time performing medication therapy, with studies confirming that 59%-78% of MEs are associated with hospital staff nurses [23][24][25][26]. A Swedish study identified that almost 45% of MEs rates are related to wrong dosage and other errors [27].…”