The impact of preprinted prescription forms on medication prescribing errors in an ophthalmology clinic in northeast Thailand: a non-randomised interventional study

ObjectivesTo understand the incidence and types of medication prescribing errors in a low resource setting ophthalmology clinic and to determine the impact of a preprinted prescription based on the hospital formulary (FormularyScript) on medication prescribing errors.DesignNon-randomised interventio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open 2012-01, Vol.2 (1), p.e000539
Main Authors: Sanguansak, Thuss, Morley, Michael G, Yospaiboon, Yosanan, Lorch, Alice, Hedt, Bethany, Morley, Katharine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Data collection
Developing countries
Drug dosages
Drug stores
Health Services Research
LDCs
Medical errors
Names
Ophthalmology
Physicians
Prescriptions
Software
Writing
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Summary:ObjectivesTo understand the incidence and types of medication prescribing errors in a low resource setting ophthalmology clinic and to determine the impact of a preprinted prescription based on the hospital formulary (FormularyScript) on medication prescribing errors.DesignNon-randomised interventional study.SettingOphthalmology clinic in a teaching hospital in northeast Thailand.Participants4349 handwritten prescriptions collected from October 2009 to December 2009, and 4146 FormularyScripts collected from February 2010 to May 2010.Primary and secondary outcome measuresAll prescriptions from the handwritten and FormularyScript groups were analysed for medication error rates by types (legibility, ambiguous, incomplete, abbreviation and accuracy) and subtypes (drug name, strength, which eye, route and dispensed amount).ResultsComparison of error rates in the two groups showed a 10-fold reduction in the overall error rate using FormularyScript (32.9%–3.5%, p
ISSN:2044-6055
2044-6055
DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000539