Medication errors involving oral chemotherapy.

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Pharmacology
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Oral chemotherapies are increasingly used in cancer treatment.
• Medication errors can occur during prescribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring of these drugs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine medication errors associated with oral chemotherapy.
• To identify the types and frequency of errors and their impact on patient safety.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a comprehensive search of medical literature and internet sources.
• Reviewed reports from the Medication Errors Reporting Program and MEDMARX.
• Solicited incident reports from 14 cancer centers and collected data from their own institution.

Main Results:

• Identified 99 adverse drug events, 322 near misses, and 87 low-risk errors.
• Most common errors: wrong dose (38.8%), wrong drug (13.6%), wrong duration (11.0%), and missed dose (10.0%).
• Wrong duration of supply led to adverse events in 39.3% of cases.

Conclusions:

• Oral chemotherapy safety necessitates enhanced processes for ordering, dispensing, administration, and monitoring.
• Systemic improvements are required to minimize medication errors and ensure patient well-being.