Background Medication errors (MEs) are common in health care settings and pose a threat for the hospitalized population. Therefore, aspects of MEs were explored in a tertiary setting serving a diverse population. Objective To examine the occurrence, severity and reporting of MEs in hospitalized patients. Methods This retrospective analysis included 10,683 ME report forms that were received by the Medication Safety Unit of King Saud Medical City (KSMC) in 2015. ME outcomes were determined according to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) Index for categorizing MEs algorithm. Results A total of 13,677 MEs in 912,500 prescriptions were reported. The incidence rate of MEs was 1.5% (13,677/912,500). The highest percentage (42.2%) of MEs occurred during the transcription stage, and 70.0% of MEs were reported as near misses. Wrong frequency and wrong concentration accounted for nearly half of the MEs. Conclusion We found 1.5 MEs per 100 prescriptions; more than two-thirds of the MEs were preventable and were intercepted before reaching the patients. Most MEs reported by pharmacists occurred at the transcription stage while wrong frequency was the most common error type encountered. Further studies should explore the clinical consequences of MEs at a healthcare institution.

Background: Underreporting is a common problem with spontaneous adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting. In this study, we aim to describe the reporting of ADRs in a tertiary hospital and determine the effect of incentives to healthcare professionals on ADR reporting. Methods: In this interventional study, a time series analysis was used to determine the effect of incentives on ADR reporting in a tertiary hospital between 2015 and 2016. The incentive strategy included public commendation of health care providers and nomination for a monthly award. Results: A total of 967 ADRs were reported over a 2-year period. After the introduction of incentives in January 2016, the number of ADR reports per month increased by 40.6 (95% confidence interval: 26.1-55.1). The proportion of serious ADRs reported was significantly higher in 2016 (39/800) than 2015 (0/167) (p < 0.001). In 2016, there was a significant association between profession and serious ADR reporting (p < 0.001). A total of 14/21 ADRs (66.7%) reported by physicians in 2016 were serious compared with 20/700 (2.9%) reported by clinical pharmacists and 5/72 (6.9%) by nurses. Conclusions: ADR reporting was improved by providing incentives, including commendation and reward, to healthcare professionals.

Background: Patient satisfaction is one of the main indicators for determining the quality of the services provided to patients by pharmacists.Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the patients’ satisfaction and various factors affecting satisfaction with pharmacists dispensing services atKingSaudMedicalCity inRiyadh,Saudi Arabia.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to explore patient satisfaction with the pharmacy services from August through September2013. A self-administered, 10-item questionnaire was administered randomly to 500 participants to evaluate patient satisfaction. Twenty questionnaires were excluded because they were incomplete. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 for Windows was used to analyze the data.Results: The response rate of this study was 96%. Most of the respondents were female (252, 52.4%), and 69.9% of the sample visited the pharmacy 3 or more times per year. The majority of the patients reported a high level of satisfaction, which was slightly variable among the groups, particularly with respect to the education level and employment status of the patients. Patients with a high school education or less were the most satisfied with the pharmacy services with a mean score of 3.50 (df= 2.969, F= 3.659, p=<0.006). Unemployed patients were the most satisfied with the pharmacy services, with a mean score of 3.52  (df= 2.580, F= 3.138, p=<0.044).Conclusion: The patients reported a high level of satisfaction with the pharmacy services atKingSaudMedicalCity inRiyadh.

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