Medication errors in an oncology inpatient setting in India-Audit by clinical pharmacists

Good clinical practices and strict vigilance are needed, especially for patients receiving chemotherapy. Regular audits using a specially developed tool need to be conducted in the oncology wards to identify lapses in the use of chemotherapy drugs.

Observational study was conducted in the adult and paediatric oncology inpatient settings in an Indian tertiary care hospital for a period of 2.5 years. It was an audit of case files of chemotherapy patients for their drug prescriptions, medication reconciliation records and adverse drug reports. Data was presented as frequencies and percentages.

1.3% medication errors and 0.23% adverse drug reactions were reported during the study period. Majority were transcription (38%) and drug reconstitution errors (29%) and were either in the near-miss or no-harm category.

Medication errors were found in the oncology wards, but due to the vigilance of clinical pharmacists, none of the patients were harmed as a consequence of these errors.