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Medication errors during hospital drug rounds.

K W Ridge¹, D B Jenkins, P R Noyce

¹Department of Pharmacy, University of Manchester, UK.

Quality in Health Care : QHC

|November 4, 1995

Summary

Drug administration errors occurred at a rate of 3.5% in a National Health Service hospital. Most errors were omissions, highlighting a need for improved prescribing, supply, and administration practices.

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Area of Science:

Healthcare quality and safety
Medication management
Patient safety research

Background:

Drug administration errors pose a significant risk to patient safety.
Understanding the types and frequency of these errors is crucial for developing effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine the nature and rate of drug administration errors.
To identify specific types of errors occurring during drug rounds.

Main Methods:

A covert observational survey was conducted over four months in a National Health Service hospital.
Trained observers recorded drug administration errors during routine drug rounds performed by 37 nurses across various wards.

Main Results:

A total of 115 drug administration errors were observed during 3312 administrations, resulting in an overall error rate of 3.5%.
Omission errors were the most frequent, accounting for 68% of all errors.
Wrong dose errors constituted 15% of the total errors.

Conclusions:

The observed rate of drug administration errors is unacceptably high.
Multidisciplinary reviews of prescribing, drug supply, and administration practices are recommended to reduce error rates.

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