RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS: TO ENHANCE PATIENT SAFETY BY MINIMIZING MEDICATION ERRORS IN TERTIARY CARE CARDIAC HOSPITAL

Abstract

To identify and measure the frequency of medication errors, to understand the causes for errors and best strategies to decrease medication errors rate in a cardiac hospital New Delhi. The Retrospective study of 137 case files, was undertaken to find out the medication errors in new drugs to be included in hospital formulary and to study policy compliances,for the period of a month, February 2010.We studied 137 patient files and Medication error related were reported most often at the stages of prescription- 32 cases(23.35%), 12 administration errors(8.75%), 9 documentation errors(6.56%), 7 transcription errors (5.1%). This study has demonstrated a whole range of different types of errors in different phases of medication use and documentation process. We have seen that handwritten prescriptions are associated with large number of errors. A combined effort is required by the physician’s, managerial staff, nursing staff and educational interventions to improve patient safety in hospital