E-prescribing errors identified in a compounding pharmacy: a quality-improvement project.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Health Informatics
• Medication Safety

Background:

• Prescribing errors can delay patient medication access.
• Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) aims to reduce errors but can introduce new ones.
• Compounding pharmacies face unique e-prescribing challenges due to non-standardized medications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the electronic prescription error rate in a compounding pharmacy.
• To identify common e-prescription error types and pharmacist interventions.
• To estimate the time required for e-prescription error resolution.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement study with descriptive data collection over four weeks.
• Pharmacists recorded electronic prescription errors on standardized forms.
• Error rates, types, and resolution methods were analyzed using percentages.

Main Results:

• Out of 982 new prescriptions, 111 were electronic, with 70 errors (63% error rate).
• The most frequent error was 'wrong entry field' (70.3%), often due to incorrect drug name placement.
• Pharmacists primarily used their judgment (67%) for error resolution.

Conclusions:

• A significant electronic prescription error rate exists in compounding pharmacies.
• E-prescription errors disrupt pharmacy workflow and patient care.
• Collaboration with e-prescribing vendors is necessary for systems-based solutions.