title: Investigation of medication prescribing errors in Wad Medani, Gezira, Sudan.
abstract: This is Sudan's first cross sectional exploratory study aimed to analyze the appropriateness of prescriptions written in different health settings in Wad Medani, Sudan. Two pretested questionnaires were used to collect information about the possible causes of medication errors from randomly selected practicing physicians and pharmacists. The sample consisted of 2000 prescriptions collected in the period of August and September 2009. There were statistically significant differences between legibility of printed and handwritten prescriptions (p < 0.001), of all prescriptions 43.8% was not accompanied by instructions to the patients and 14% contained potential interactions with different degrees of seriousness, ranging from minor 1.8%, moderate 8.4% and severe 3.9%. According to the standard classifications of prescription writing, only one prescription (0.1%) was considered ideal with no error encountered, 12.2% of prescriptions contained errors being potentially serious to the patients, 17.8% showed errors of major importance, 6.9% had errors of minor importance and 10.5% contained trivial errors. While of the prescriptions 52.6% were free from errors but they were incomplete, something that could lead to serious patients' harm. The study identified a range of weaknesses in the prescribing phase and proposed a set of recommendations encouraging physicians and pharmacists to work together to avoid such errors.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Gezira, Sudan. mirghani53@yahoo.com
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Yousif
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nizar
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Elmustafa
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Mustafa
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Bella
mesh_terms: D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000592:standards; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004347:Drug Interactions; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055695:Electronic Prescribing / Q000592:standards*; D006236:Handwriting; D016304:Hospitals, Private / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000592:standards; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D013397:Sudan