Description of medication errors detected at a drug information centre in Southern Brazil

Luciana dos Santos, Natalia Winkler, Marlise A. dos Santos, Jacqueline K. Martinbiancho
2015 Pharmacy Practice  
Objective: To identify and describe actual or potential medication errors related to drug information inquiries made by staff members of a teaching hospital to a Drug Information Centre from January 2012 to December 2013. Methods: Data were collected from the records of inquiries made by health care professionals to the Drug Information Centre throughout this period. Results: During the study period, the Drug Information Centre received 3,500 inquiries. Of these, 114 inquiries had medication
more » ... ors. Most errors were related to prescribing, preparation, and administration and were classified according to severity as category B (57%) (potential errors) and categories C (26.3%) and D (15.8%) (actual errors that did not result in harm to the patient). Error causes included overdose (13.2%), wrong route of administration (11.4%), inadequate drug storage (11.4%), and wrong dosage form (8.8%). The drugs most frequently involved in errors were vitamin K (4.4%), vancomycin (3.5%), and meropenem (3.5%).
doi:10.18549/pharmpract.2015.01.524 fatcat:qza7kallijggxd62rsxkazb7lm