Medication errors with electronic prescribing (eP): Two views of the same picture

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Patient Safety
• Medication Management

Background:

• Quantitative prospective methods are standard for evaluating new technologies like electronic prescribing (eP) but are resource-intensive.
• Obtaining pre-intervention data for these evaluations is often not feasible.
• This study aimed to compare retrospective quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing eP medication errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of retrospective quantitative and qualitative methods in evaluating medication errors associated with electronic prescribing (eP).
• To assess the feasibility and richness of data obtained from different retrospective methods for understanding medication errors.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective analysis of clinical records and medication orders for 75 patients was conducted.
• Semi-structured interviews were performed with 26 healthcare staff and 19 patients.
• Interview transcripts and records were systematically analyzed for medication incidents and errors.

Main Results:

• Both quantitative record review and qualitative interviews provided similar overall pictures of the drug use process.
• Qualitative interviews identified additional eP-specific errors not found in the record review.
• Interview data collection was less time-consuming and yielded richer insights into prescribing processes and error reasons.

Conclusions:

• Qualitative methods offer deeper understanding of medication error processes and contributing factors.
• This retrospective qualitative approach is cost-effective.
• Qualitative findings can effectively supplement data from anonymous error reporting systems.