Assessment of Medication Errors of Drugs in Emergency Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Medication errors (MEs) are common in Indian hospitals which can cause significant harm to the patients. The emergency unit is a high-risk environment for irrational use of medication due to stressors and time sensitive nature of the service. Medication errors may occur at any stage of prescribing, documenting, dispensing, administration. Objective: This study was planned to assess incidence and various types of medication errors of drugs reported in emergency medicine department. Methodology: A prospective observational study was conducted for six months February 2022 to August 2022 in Navodaya medical college, hospital & research centre with a sample size of 220. Data were collected from all hospitalized patients who are admitted in the emergency department in the hospital during the study period. Result: Among the 220 cases collected, 84(38.18%) cases are found medication errors. Total 163 number of drugs were reported as medication error. The majority of MEs was found prescribing error 92(56.44%), followed by administration error 67(41.11%), and 4(2.45%) dispensing error was found. Conclusion: In our study the majority types of errors we found prescription errors followed by administration error. Overlooked drug-drug interactions is the major problem or medication error in our emergency department. We believe that every healthcare professional should be aware of these medication errors and overcome the all types of errors.