Detection of medication errors in the emergency room at a private hospital in Costa Rica: an opportunity for therapy and patient's safety enhancement

 

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Chaverri Fernández, José Miguel, Zavaleta Monestel, Esteban, Díaz Madriz, José Pablo, Garro Zamora, Luis David, Ortiz Ureña, Angie, Carmona Castro, Nidia, Martínez Caamaño, Lauren
Formato: artículo original
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de Publicación:2017
Descripción:Objective: Determine the type, incidence and causes of medication errors in a sample of at the emergency service of a private hospital in Costa Rica. Methods: Observational retrospective study, the selected patients were those who consulted between October 1st and December 31 and had digitalized prescriptions; the variables were evaluated to assign a category for each medication error detected and each prescribed drug. Results: A total of 435 medication errors were detected, the most common being an incorrect selection and an incomplete prescription; with an average of 1, 44 errors per prescription; mainly in patients between 18 and 40 years old (48, 7%). Of the 300 analyzed cases, 192 did have a prescription error: 6 for a potential error, 183 did not result in patient harm and 3 were a combination of those. Conclusions: There is a high incidence of prescription errors in the emergency service at this hospital; mainly due to a inadequate drug selection and a information omission in the medical prescriptions, nevertheless, in general the medication errors did not cause harm to the patients. There is a need to develop adequate strategies to improve the drugs’ use at this service. 
País:Portal de Revistas UCR
Institución:Universidad de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Portal de Revistas UCR
Lenguaje:Español
OAI Identifier:oai:portal.ucr.ac.cr:article/30431
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/medica/article/view/30431
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:medication errors
emergency hospital service
patient safety
errores de medicación
urgencias médicas
seguridad del paciente