Clinical Audits to Identify Medication Errors in a Healthcare Facility

Abstract

Background: Medication errors have serious effects on patient care and it is important to detect them instantly in order to reduce clinical practice errors and prevent their adverse outcomes. Even though error reporting techniques are less expensive, there may be considerable impediments for a nurse to notify an error due to the obvious possibility of negative repercussions. Study aims: The present study was undertaken to determine the incidence of medication errors, with identifying their common types, and the effect of clinical audits. Materials and methods: Records are maintained by the hospital quality assurance department, according to National Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH) standards, from January 2018 to December 2019. This data was collected by the authors and analyzed for the percentage of medication errors which included prescription errors and medicine dispensing errors. Results:In this study, the incidence of medication errors was 2.82, 1.43, 2.09, 1.70, 4.97, 3.96, 1.38, 1.53, 1.71, 1.80, 1.41, and 0.54 in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 2018, respectively, versus 2.64, 0.91, 0, 0.81, 1.11, 1.20, 2.50, 2.75, 1.91, 1.44, 1.14 and 1.91 during the same months of 2019, respectively. Conclusion:Although medication errors occur frequently, they are rarely reported. In order to accurately assess the contributing factors and take preventative action to make sure they do not recur in the future, reporting is essential.