title: Outpatient anti-epileptic drug prescribing errors in a Children's Hospital: an audit and literature review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Prescription errors are a common and potentially hazardous problem and may cause patient harm. This review evaluates all new anti-epileptic drug (AED) outpatient prescriptions over one year and reviews the subject literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 12-month retrospective review of all outpatient prescriptions of AEDs within a large Children's Hospital. Copies of all prescriptions were obtained from the Trust's Pharmacy. The evaluation included the completeness of the required information, prescribing errors and the need for pharmacist intervention before the drug could be dispensed. It did not address the severity of prescribing errors or the potential harm to the patient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and sixty two new prescriptions were evaluated. Incomplete prescriptions (that omitted at least one piece of required information) were found in 72.1%. The most common omission was the dose strength (mg/ml) or actual dose (mg) of the AED. No clinical diagnosis was documented in 62.6% and in 22%, only the word 'epilepsy', was stated with no reference to the epilepsy syndrome or seizure type. Pharmacist intervention was required in approximately 17% (approximately 1 in 6) of all prescriptions before the AED could be dispensed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review highlights the importance of clinical information on prescriptions and that incomplete or poor documentation may contribute to prescribing errors. It also emphasises the importance of pharmacists in the identification and correction or resolution of potential prescribing errors. There is a need to develop a well-validated measure to assess the severity of prescribing errors that will better address their clinical significance and risk.
authors.affiliation: Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Whiston Hospital, St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust, Warrington Road, Prescot, UK.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bentur
authors.affiliation: Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dolan
authors.affiliation: Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bugembe
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Department, Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.affiliation: The Roald Dahl EEG Unit, Paediatric Neurosciences Foundation, Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool L12 2AP, UK. Electronic address: Richard.appleton@alderhey.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Appleton
mesh_terms: D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010045:Outpatients; D010595:Pharmacists
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants
keywords: Drug; Error; Outpatient; Paediatric; Pharmacy; Prescription