title: Medication errors in an emergency department in a large teaching hospital in tehran.
abstract: Medication errors have important effects on increased length of hospitalization, increased mortality and costs. We assessed the incidence of medication errors and characterize the error types in an emergency department in a large teaching hospital in Tehran. We also investigated the effect of Emergency Department pharmacists on patient safety with regard to recovery of potentially harmful medication errors. The study was conducted in the 24 bed emergency department from February to March, 2010 at a 600-bed teaching hospital. Two hospital pharmacists and two clinical pharmacy residents observed care provision and collected data on medication errors. Demographic data, type of medication error, the recorded stage of error, date and time of occurrence and report, who made the error, probability of error were recorded from medical records. We used chi-squared and independent sample t- tests for analyzing the data. We recorded 203 medication errors during 180 hours. The incidence of medication errors was 50.5% at various levels in the emergency department. Significant difference in age means was seen between the patients with and without medication errors. Seventy four point nine percent of errors were recorded as definitely an error. Most recorded errors were made by nurses (44.5%) and occurred in administrating stage (63.6%). Given that the rate of the errors was relatively high, it seems that the presence of clinical pharmacist can be beneficial.
authors: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, ; School of Pharmacy, Kerman Medical University, Kerman, Iran.
authors: Fatemeh
authors: F
authors: Dabaghzadeh
authors: Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors: Arash
authors: A
authors: Rashidian
authors: Pharmaceutical Care Department, Dr. Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors: Hassan
authors: H
authors: Torkamandi
authors: Pharmaceutical Care Department, Dr. Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Alahyari
authors: Pharmaceutical Care Department, Dr. Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors: Somayaeh
authors: S
authors: Hanafi
authors: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Shadi
authors: S
authors: Farsaei
authors: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, ; Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran .
authors: Mohammadreza
authors: M
authors: Javadi