Investigating the epidemiology of medication errors in adults in community care settings

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the period prevalence and risk factors for clinically important prescription and monitoring errors among adults managed in community care in Saudi Arabia (SA). Methods: This retrospective cohort study used electronic health record (HER) data. A random sample comprising of 2,000 adults (≥18 years old) visiting Family Medicine clinics in King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH & RC), Riyadh, SA, was selected. Data collection took 3 months (October December 2017). Descriptive analyses and logistic regression modeling were performed using STATA (version 14) statistical software. Results: The overall period prevalence of medication errors over 15 months was 8.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.5-9.7). Risk factors that significantly predicted overall risk of patients experiencing one or more medication errors were: age ≥65 years, male gender, Saudi nationality, and polypharmacy (defined as the concurrent use of ≥5 drugs). Conclusions: Clinically important medication errors were commonly observed in relation to both drug prescription and monitoring.

Medication error trends in Middle Eastern countries

“…83.84 skill-related errors were found. Finally, 95.3 interaction errors in total were found[ 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ] [ Figure 3 ].…”

“…[ 27 28 ] Iran was second highest with a reported rate of 54.16% (1293.99/2388.9). [ 14 15 16 17 18 ] Following were rates of 45.68% (2458.79/5382) and 4.33% (1076/24843) from Saudi Arabia[ 12 13 14 ] and Bahrain,[ 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ] respectively.…”

“…[ 12 13 14 ] Second highest of omission errors reported was Saudi Arabia with a rate of 7.68 (413.49/5382). [ 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 ] Iran and Lebanon follow with a rate of 5.09% (121.76/2388.9)[ 14 15 16 17 18 ] and 0%, respectively[ 27 28 ] [ Figure 4 ].…”

Prescribing errors among adult patients in a large tertiary care system in Saudi Arabia

“… 2 Due to the global threat of medication errors (MEs) on healthcare systems, the World Health Organization has launched the third Global Patient Safety Challenge with the theme of “medication without harm”. 3 , 4 Therefore, understanding and preventing MEs are essential for patient safety across the globe. 5 Prescribing errors (PEs) are the most preventable types of MEs since they occur in the early stages (prescribing/ordering stage); 6 , 7 MEs are difficult to resolve after this initial stage.…”

A qualitative exploration of the experiences of doctors, nurses and pharmacists regarding medication management in outpatient setting

“…Medication errors are abundant among outpatients. Through a review of 2,000 medical charts, 8.1% of adults (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.5–9.7) had at least one medication error in outpatient settings (Assiri et al., 2019). Additionally, outpatient medication‐related problems might not be noticed for months or until the occurrence of negative outcomes, because patients with chronic diseases may visit their physicians routinely on a 30‐ to 90‐day basis or only after a change in their health conditions (Straka et al., 2017).…”