5PSQ-162 A systematic review of incidence/prevalence, nature and causes of medication errors among hospitalised patients in middle eastern countries

• Published in: European journal of hospital pharmacy. Science and practice 2019-03, Vol.26 (Suppl 1), p.A276-A276
• Main Authors: Thomas, B, Abdulrouf, P, Elkassem, W, Al Hail, M, Stewart, D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Medical errors; Patient safety; Systematic review
• ISSN: 2047-9956; 2047-9964
• DOI: 10.1136/ejhpharm-2019-eahpconf.595

BackgroundMedication errors (ME) are a major global issue, adversely impacting patient safety and health outcomes. The World Health Organization n March 2017 published ‘Medication without Harm, 3rd Global Patient Safety Challenge’, to ‘drive a process of change and to minimize patients through unsafe medication practices to 50% over next 5 years’.PurposeThis review aimed to critically appraise, synthesise and present the available evidence on the incidence/prevalence, nature and causes of medication errors among hospitalised patients in Middle Eastern countries.Material and methodsA systematic review protocol was developed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols and registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. The review aimed to capture both quantitative and qualitative studies published in English from inception until the end of March 2018. Papers were assessed for methodological quality and bias using the STROBE checklist. A data extraction tool was developed to extract relevant data. Quantitative studies were presented descriptively, and qualitative studies were narrated. Data related to causes of medication errors were synthesised using James Reason’s Accident Causation model.Results50/452 articles were included in the final review which included 48 quantitative and two qualitative studies. The majority of studies were deemed to be of poor quality. Seventeen different definitions of ME were used that differed markedly in wording and content. The overall rate of incidence/prevalence of medication errors reported varied from 0.4%–82.5%. Most of the studies (13/50) reported medication errors per ‘total number of medication orders’, with a median across all studies of 10% (IQR 2%–35%), the rates varied from 0.18 to 56 per 100 medication orders. Prescribing errors were the most common types of errors and anti-infectives for systemic use were those most commonly associated with errors. ME were multi-factorial in terms of causes. Active failures were most commonly reported followed by error-provoking conditions.ConclusionThe systematic review identifies the lack of qualitative studies. ME are multi-factorial and there was marked heterogeneity in the definitions of medication error, methods of data collection and units of analysis which greatly limited any data pooling.References and/or acknowledgementshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621991/No conflict of inter