National observational study of prescription dispensing accuracy and safety in 50 pharmacies.
OBJECTIVE
To measure dispensing accuracy rates in 50 pharmacies located in 6 cities across the United States and describe the nature and frequency of the errors detected.


METHODS
Cross-sectional descriptive study.


METHODS
Chain, independent, and health-system pharmacies (located in hospitals or managed care organizations).


METHODS
Pharmacy staff at randomly selected pharmacies in each city who accepted an invitation to participate.


METHODS
Observation by a pharmacist in each pharmacy for 1 day, with a goal of inspecting 100 prescriptions for dispensing errors (defined as any deviation from the prescriber's order).


METHODS
Dispensing errors on new and refill prescriptions.


RESULTS
Data were collected between July 2000 and April 2001. The overall dispensing accuracy rate was 98.3% (77 errors among 4,481 prescriptions; range, 87.2%-100.0%; 95.0% confidence interval, +/- 0.4%). Accuracy rates did not differ significantly by pharmacy type or city. Of the 77 identified errors, 5 (6.5%) were judged to be clinically important.


CONCLUSIONS
Dispensing errors are a problem on a national level, at a rate of about 4 errors per day in a pharmacy filling 250 prescriptions daily. An estimated 51.5 million errors occur during the filling of 3 billion prescriptions each year.
Flynn
Elizabeth Allan
EA
Center for Pharmacy Operations and Designs, Harrison School of Pharmacy, Auburn University, Ala. 36849-5506, USA. flynnel@auburn.edu
Barker
Kenneth N
KN
Carnahan
Brian J
BJ
D004348:Drug Labeling; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000458:organization & administration; D011786:Quality Control; D014481:United States