Medication Errors at a Tertiary Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

Area of Science:

• Medical Science
• Pharmacology
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Intensive care units (ICUs) have high medication prescription rates per patient day.
• Complex patient conditions and ICU dynamics elevate medication error risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the incidence and types of medication errors in an adult general ICU.
• To assess drug prescription and administration errors in a South African tertiary hospital ICU.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective chart review of a 19-bed adult general ICU.
• Independent data collection by two investigators scrutinizing patient charts.
• Analysis of drug prescription and administration records over 656 patient days.

Main Results:

• A total of 359 medication errors were identified from 3237 prescribed drugs.
• The overall error rate was 621.1 per 1000 patient days (110.9 per 1000 prescriptions).
• Common errors included incorrect dose prescribed (19.2%), incorrect dosing interval (13.4%), incorrect dose administered (11.7%), and failure to administer (10.6%).

Conclusions:

• Medication error occurrence in this ICU is high, aligning with international trends.
• Targeted interventions are necessary to reduce medication errors in ICUs.
• Minimizing errors is crucial for mitigating patient risk in critical care settings.