Drug administration errors in Latin America: A systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality and safety
• Pharmacovigilance
• Latin American health systems

Background:

• Medication administration errors (MAEs) pose a significant threat to patient safety globally.
• Direct observation is a key method for accurately assessing MAEs in clinical settings.
• Limited systematic reviews exist on MAEs in Latin American hospitals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and determine the frequency and nature of medication administration errors in Latin American hospitals.
• To synthesize findings from studies employing direct observation methods.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of seven electronic databases (1946–March 2021).
• Inclusion of studies using direct observation of medication administration in Latin American hospitals.
• Analysis of 10 included studies from 22 hospitals, focusing on error rates and types.

Main Results:

• The median medication administration error rate was 32% (IQR 16%-35.8%), with high variability (9%-64%).
• Excluding time errors, the median error rate was 9.7% (IQR 7.4%-29.5%).
• Most frequent errors included time, dose, and omission; systemic anti-infectives were the most reported therapeutic class involved.

Conclusions:

• Medication administration error rates in Latin America are high, even when time errors are excluded.
• Variability in error frequencies is likely due to diverse study contexts.
• Further direct observation research is needed to accurately assess MAE nature and severity.