Medication Errors as a Marker of Resident Competency.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Patient Safety
• Surgical Training

Background:

• Assessing resident performance is crucial for surgical training.
• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestones guide competency evaluation.
• Medication errors may indicate potential deficits in resident performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if medication error rates can serve as a screening tool for general surgery resident competency.
• To investigate the correlation between medication ordering errors and ACGME milestone scores.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective cohort study over four years.
• Analysis of medication ordering errors and ACGME core competency scores in general surgery residents.
• Comparison of error rates across postgraduate year (PGY) levels.

Main Results:

• A total of 1,164,663 medication orders were reviewed, with 1,214 errors identified (0.1% error rate).
• A statistically significant decrease in medication error rate was observed with increasing PGY level (p=0.005).
• No consistent correlation was found between medication error rates and individual ACGME milestone competency scores.

Conclusions:

• Medication error rates did not consistently reflect general surgery resident performance as measured by ACGME milestones.
• Medication errors may capture unique aspects of resident performance not currently assessed.
• Further research is needed to explore the utility of medication errors as a performance indicator in surgical residency programs.