Medication errors in a Spanish community pharmacy: nature, frequency and potential causes

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Patient Safety
• Medication Error Analysis

Background:

• Medication safety is a critical component of patient safety.
• Errors can occur throughout the medication use process, from prescription to dispensing.
• Community pharmacies play a role in identifying and mitigating medication errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the characteristics, frequency, and origins of medication errors within a Spanish community pharmacy.
• To quantify the incidence of prescribing errors, dispensing errors, and dispensing near-misses.

Main Methods:

• A 13-month observational study was conducted in a single Spanish community pharmacy.
• Data were collected from internal pharmacy records, including written reports of incidents.
• Analysis encompassed prescribing errors, dispensing errors, and dispensing near-misses.

Main Results:

• A total of 2,117 medication errors were identified across 42,000 prescriptions, yielding an overall error rate of 5.0%.
• Prescribing errors were the most common (1,127 instances), followed by dispensing near-misses (774) and dispensing errors (216).
• Illegible prescriptions accounted for 26.2% of all identified errors.

Conclusions:

• Community pharmacies can effectively detect medication errors, contributing to overall healthcare system safety.
• The majority of medication errors identified occurred during the prescribing stage.
• Addressing issues like illegible prescriptions is crucial for reducing medication errors.