title: Knowledge of healthcare professionals about medication errors in hospitals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medication errors are the most common types of medical errors in hospitals and leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge of healthcare professionals about medication errors in hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to randomly selected healthcare professionals in eight hospitals in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  METHODS
  An 18-item survey was designed and comprised questions on demographic data, knowledge of medication errors, availability of reporting systems in hospitals, attitudes toward error reporting, causes of medication errors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software Version 17.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 323 of healthcare professionals completed the questionnaire with 64.6% response rate of 138 (42.72%) physicians, 34 (10.53%) pharmacists, and 151 (46.75%) nurses. A majority of the participants had a good knowledge about medication errors concept and their dangers on patients. Only 68.7% of them were aware of reporting systems in hospitals. Healthcare professionals revealed that there was no clear mechanism available for reporting of errors in most hospitals. Prescribing (46.5%) and administration (29%) errors were the main causes of errors. The most frequently encountered medication errors were anti-hypertensives, antidiabetics, antibiotics, digoxin, and insulin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study revealed differences in the awareness among healthcare professionals toward medication errors in hospitals. The poor knowledge about medication errors emphasized the urgent necessity to adopt appropriate measures to raise awareness about medication errors in Saudi hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Hospital Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia, Egypt; Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Abdel-Latif
keywords: Error reporting system; healthcare professionals; hospitals; knowledge; medications errors