ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE MEDICATION ERRORS OF THE PATIENTS ADMITTED AT THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OF A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL OF A SOUTH INDIAN CITY

OBJECTIVE: The study was to assess, evaluate and analyze the medication errors of the patients admitted at the Emergency Department of a tertiary care teaching hospital.METHODS: The study was conducted for 6 months. Data was collected from the patients  admitted in the Emergency Department. The collected data was analyzed to identify medication errors and prescription errors in emergency unit in hospital by using drug information tools like Micromedex, Drug interaction checker, Stockley drug interaction text, BNF, Journals with good impact factor etc.RESULTS: A total of 200 patients were enrolled in the study according to the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria in which 108 were males and 92 were females. 340 medication errors were obtained in 122 patients and 78 patients did not have any error. Medication errors were more commonly in the age group of 61-70 years (49%). In 340 medication errors, DDIs were the most (63.3%), followed by drug duplication (13.53%) and drugs given without indication (8.5%). In DDIs moderate interactions were the mostly seen error. On prescription analysis, drugs prescribed without strength (67.6%), omission error (16.4%), drugs prescribed without frequency (16%) was the most commonly seen. The most common pharmacological classification of drugs associated with medication errors were Antibiotics (25.6%), Anti-hypertensive drugs (13.65%) and Anti-platelet drugs (12.9%).CONCLUSION: Incidence of medication errors was mainly due to the use of Antibiotics. Due to the fast paced nature and overcrowding in ED, more number of prescription errors were obtained.   Â