Medication error prevention by pharmacists--an Israeli solution.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to record prospectively the frequency of medication order errors in a general hospital in Israel with the objective of assessing the impact of pharmacist intervention in preventing potential harm.


METHODS
The study was conducted during a 6-month period. A total of 160 medication order errors were detected at the hospital of which 60.6% were prescription errors and 39.4% were therapy ones. Principal types of errors detected were incorrect dosage (27.5%), interactions between drugs (20%), incorrect drug (12.5%), route (11.2%) and frequency (11.2%). Medication error rate by degree of severity was calculated per 100 patient days. The highest rate was found in Hemato-Oncology (2.48), followed by Intensive Care (0.82), Surgery (0.48) and Internal Medicine (0.26). Anti-infective drugs were the most prevalent class of drugs in which errors occurred (38.7%) followed by total parenteral nutrition preparations (21.8%), antineoplastics (15.6%) and anticoagulants (11.3%). Changes in medication orders due to pharmacists' intervention only occurred in 73.8% of error cases, most referring to dosage or route change (37.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
This study underestimates the actual number of medication errors. However, it identified problem areas and trends so that better measures to improve drug use could be implemented.
Lustig
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Pharmacy Department, Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon, Israel.
D006748:Hospital Departments; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital; D010595:Pharmacists; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital; D010606:Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee; D011446:Prospective Studies