Identifying dispensing errors in pharmacies in a medical science school in Trinidad and Tobago

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

A dispensing error can be defined as an inconsistency between the drug prescribed and drug dispensed to a patient. These errors can lead to ineffective and sometimes unwanted pharmaceutical outcomes. Dispensing errors can be harmful or even fatal to patients.

Case presentation

The objective to this study was (a) to determine the types and frequency of dispensing errors at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), (b) to explore the reasons for the occurrence of dispensing errors, and (c) to make suitable recommendations for their prevention. An observational study for a period of 2 weeks was carried out at various in- and outpatient departments of the EWMSC. The observations were carried out during 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. Dispensing errors identified during this period were recorded and analyzed.

Results

Sixty-eight errors were identified in the adult outpatient pharmacy of the EWMSC; 19 errors in the pediatric outpatient pharmacy, whereas 22 errors were found in inpatient pharmacy. The most common plausible causes for the dispensing errors include high workload, failure to verify patient information, incorrect data in the pharmacy’s record system, inadequate notes made by pharmacists during prior patient visit, and in a few cases, uncomfortable working conditions.

Conclusion

Dispensing errors were encountered in 2.1% of all the prescriptions filled at the EWMSC pharmacies. The factors which influenced these dispensing errors include but are not limited to a heavy workload, distractions, failure to verify patient information, and uncomfortable working conditions.

Related collections

Most cited references 10

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems

David C Radley, Melanie R Wasserman, Lauren Olsho … (2013)

Objective Medication errors in hospitals are common, expensive, and sometimes harmful to patients. This study's objective was to derive a nationally representative estimate of medication error reduction in hospitals attributable to electronic prescribing through computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems. Materials and methods We conducted a systematic literature review and applied random-effects meta-analytic techniques to derive a summary estimate of the effect of CPOE on medication errors. This pooled estimate was combined with data from the 2006 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Annual Survey, the 2007 American Hospital Association Annual Survey, and the latter's 2008 Electronic Health Record Adoption Database supplement to estimate the percentage and absolute reduction in medication errors attributable to CPOE. Results Processing a prescription drug order through a CPOE system decreases the likelihood of error on that order by 48% (95% CI 41% to 55%). Given this effect size, and the degree of CPOE adoption and use in hospitals in 2008, we estimate a 12.5% reduction in medication errors, or ∼17.4 million medication errors averted in the USA in 1 year. Discussion Our findings suggest that CPOE can substantially reduce the frequency of medication errors in inpatient acute-care settings; however, it is unclear whether this translates into reduced harm for patients. Conclusions Despite CPOE systems’ effectiveness at preventing medication errors, adoption and use in US hospitals remain modest. Current policies to increase CPOE adoption and use will likely prevent millions of additional medication errors each year. Further research is needed to better characterize links to patient harm.

0 comments Cited 89 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Medication errors: the importance of safe dispensing.

Marcel Bouvy, Yuk Chun Cheung, A. de Boer (2009)

1. Although rates of dispensing errors are generally low, further improvements in pharmacy distribution systems are still important because pharmacies dispense such high volumes of medications that even a low error rate can translate into a large number of errors. 2. From the perspective of pharmacy organization and quality assurance, pharmacists should intensify their checking of prescriptions, in order to reduce prescription errors, and should implement strategies to communicate adequately with patients, in order to prevent administration errors. More and better studies are still needed in these areas. 3. More research is also required into: dispensing errors in out-patient health-care settings, such as community pharmacies in the USA and Europe; dispensing errors in hospitals and out-patient health-care settings in middle- and low-income countries; and the underlying causes of dispensing errors.

0 comments Cited 47 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The frequency and potential causes of dispensing errors in a hospital pharmacy.

Bryony Franklin, Nick Barber, J. A. Beso (2005)

To determine the frequency and types of dispensing errors identified both at the final check stage and outside of a UK hospital pharmacy, to explore the reasons why they occurred, and to make recommendations for their prevention. A definition of a dispensing error and a classification system were developed. To study the frequency and types of errors, pharmacy staff recorded details of all errors identified at the final check stage during a two-week period; all errors identified outside of the department and reported during a one-year period were also recorded. During a separate six-week period, pharmacy staff making dispensing errors identified at the final check stage were interviewed to explore the causes; the findings were analysed using a model of human error. Percentage of dispensed items for which one or more dispensing errors were identified at the final check stage; percentage for which an error was reported outside of the pharmacy department; the active failures, error producing conditions and latent conditions that result in dispensing errors occurring. One or more dispensing errors were identified at the final check stage in 2.1% of 4849 dispensed items, and outside of the pharmacy department in 0.02% of 194,584 items. The majority of those identified at the final check stage involved slips in picking products, or mistakes in making assumptions about the products concerned. Factors contributing to the errors included labelling and storage of containers in the dispensary, interruptions and distractions, a culture where errors are seen as being inevitable, and reliance on others to identify and rectify errors. Dispensing errors occur in about 2% of all dispensed items. About 1 in 100 of these is missed by the final check. The impact on dispensing errors of developments such as automated dispensing systems should be evaluated.

0 comments Cited 42 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Sandeep Maharaj: sandeep.maharaj@sta.uwi.edu

Adrian Brahim: adrian7112@outlook.com

Horry Brown: brown.horry@gmail.com

Danielle Budraj: danielle_budraj@hotmail.com

Vatalie Caesar: vatalie28@hotmail.com

Anyse Calder: medanyse@gmail.com

Deisha Carr: ddcarr18@gmail.com

Dion Castillo: dion.castillo14@yahoo.com

Kevin Cedeno: kev_deno@hotmail.com

Manthan D. Janodia:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0000-9673

manthan.janodia@gmail.com , manthan.j@manipal.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Pharm Policy Pract

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Pharm Policy Pract

Title: Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2052-3211

Publication date (Electronic): 8 October 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 8 October 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Volume: 13

Electronic Location Identifier: 67

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.430529.9, School of Pharmacy, , The University of the West Indies, ; St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago

[2 ]GRID grid.411639.8, ISNI 0000 0001 0571 5193, Department of Pharmacy Management, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, , Manipal Academy of Higher Education, ; Manipal, Karnataka 576104 India

Author information

Manthan D. Janodia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0000-9673

Article

Publisher ID: 263

DOI: 10.1186/s40545-020-00263-x

PMC ID: 7542753

PubMed ID: 33042556

SO-VID: f926381a-0fee-47b3-ba4d-2bd69f73de52

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 6 May 2019

Date accepted : 18 August 2020

Custom metadata

Keywords: dispensing errors,pharmacy,medical school,trinidad and tobago

Data availability:

Keywords: dispensing errors, pharmacy, medical school, trinidad and tobago

Comments

Comment on this article

Cited by 5

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 122

See all reference authors