Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics

Area of Science:

• Health equity research
• Patient safety
• Healthcare disparities

Background:

• Health disparities disproportionately affect minority populations.
• Protected characteristics significantly influence health outcomes.
• Existing research highlights inequities in patient safety, but less on healthcare system processes contributing to these disparities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review medication error incident reporting for patients with protected characteristics.
• To identify unexplained variations in reporting within an acute National Health Service (NHS) Trust.
• To determine if patient characteristics impact medication error reporting rates.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study across five NHS Trust hospitals.
• Analysis of medication error incidents reported between January 1, 2021, and July 31, 2021.
• Chi-squared (χ2) test to assess the impact of protected characteristics on error reporting rates.

Main Results:

• Medication error reporting is inequitable across gender, ethnic, and age groups.
• These protected characteristics showed a negative relationship with the number of reported medication incidents.
• Significant variations in reporting rates were observed based on patient demographics.

Conclusions:

• Systematic support is essential to reduce variations in medication error reporting for patients with protected characteristics.
• Development of infrastructure is needed to address barriers like language, culture, and understanding in healthcare.
• Addressing these systemic issues is crucial for achieving equitable patient safety outcomes.