Electronically assisted prescription will minimise drug transcription errors

To assess the impact of administration errors when transcribing treatments to nurses' administration forms, and to estimate the impact of electronically assisted prescription (EAP) in minimising these errors.

A prospective, observational study in hospitalised patients. In a representative sample changes in treatment in the 24 h before the examination are analysed. Transcription errors were detected when checking the discrepancies between the medical prescription and the nurses' treatment administration forms. Error incidence was calculated as a whole and by ward, type of error, administration route and their potential danger. The possible reduction in new errors per day if the EAP were to be introduced in all units was estimated.

Of the 416 prescriptions recorded, the overall percentage of transcription errors was 12.4%, 9.8% in medical units and 15.2% in surgical units. Most of the errors were made when a new medicine was added (29.4%) and the frequency of administration was changed (27.4%). With regard to their gravity, 98% did not harm the patients, and 57.7% were filed as "Category C". Taking into account that 1 change of treatment is made per patient per day, the introduction of the EAP is predicted to prevent 64 new errors daily in the hospital.

There are so many transcription errors that they should be taken into account when designing strategies to improve care quality. EAP is an efficient tool to eliminate errors associated with the transcription of prescriptions.