Pharmacist's Intervention and Medication Errors Prevention at Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in East Province, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

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.

Pharmacist Intervention Documentation in Saudi Arabia

“…8 In addition, they provide interventions that are considered as beneficial by the healthcare systems across various wards in the hospital. 9,10 Moreover, the implementation of pharmacist intervention documentations demand to declare the clinical and economic outcome of pharmacist's role toward patient care. Various studies have been conducted to evaluate pharmacist's intervention in preventing or reducing drug-related problems and reduced the potential economic burden.…”

“…14 Previous studies have focused on pharmacist intervention at governmental or private healthcare organization in Saudi Arabia. 9,10,15,16 Moreover, several international studies have focused on methods and policies of pharmacist documentation. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] However, only a few studies have discussed the methods or types of pharmacist intervention documentation.…”

Adult Standardized Concentration of Central Nervous System Medications Intravenous Infusion: A New Initiative in Saudi Arabia

“…The pharmacist had a noteworthy role in medications errors prevention and recognized the medications safety program. [3,4] The medication error prevention had exceptional clinical or economic outcomes in the patient's care. [3][4][5][6] Several elements related to patients, drug, equipment, education, competency and total quality medications were the angle of assessment of medications safety culture and prevented the errors before it occurs.…”

“…[3,4] The medication error prevention had exceptional clinical or economic outcomes in the patient's care. [3][4][5][6] Several elements related to patients, drug, equipment, education, competency and total quality medications were the angle of assessment of medications safety culture and prevented the errors before it occurs. [7,8] Institute of Safety Medications Practice (ISMP) worked very hard in this matter and release several indicators to prevent mistakes at the hospital or primary healthcare centers and community pharmacies.…”

Practice and Perception of Pharmacist Intervention Documentation in Saudi Arabia

“…Another various local studies showed the pharmacist in-tervention documentations at healthcare institutions in Saudi Arabia. [4][5][6][7] Various international and a few local studies conducted on practice of pharmacist intervention documentation discuss the practice and perception of pharmacist intervention documentation. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the practice and perceptions of pharmacist intervention documentation in the KSA.…”