5PSQ-124 Frequency, nature and causes of medication errors reported among home healthcare patients in qatar. (March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Elkassem, W; Abdulrouf, P; Thomas, B; Alhail, M; Muqarrabeen, S
• Is Part Of: European journal of hospital pharmacy. Volume 26(2019)Supplement 1
• Page Start: A258
• Page End: A259
• Publication Date: 2019-03
• Subjects: Pharmacy -- Periodicals; Hospital pharmacies -- Periodicals; 615.1
• DOI: 10.1136/ejhpharm-2019-eahpconf.557
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2047-9956

Abstract

Abstract : Background: 'Home care' is a system of care provided by experienced healthcare professionals to the patients in their homes under the guidance of a physician. Medication errors (ME) among home healthcare patients is a major global concern, given the fact that home-care patients are frequent medication users, and given the nature of their illness and age, these patients are more susceptible to ME. To stimulate development of interventions to enhance the quality of medication use, there is an urgent need to gather information on the quantity, nature and causes of ME among this vulnerable population. Purpose: To determine the frequency and causes of ME at home-care facilities in Qatar. Material and methods: This is a retrospective analysis of all the ME pertaining to Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) home healthcare services that were submitted to an incident monitoring system. The data was collected for a period of 24 months from January 2015 to December 2016. The study protocol was approved by the Medical Research Centre at HMC, Qatar. The incidence was calculated by dividing the number of home-care reports by the total number of reports submitted. The reports were further categorised to medication error sub-types. The study further analysed the reports based on Reason's Accident Causation model. Results: Of the total reports submitted, only 341 (2.5%) were reported from home healthcare. Medication administration errors were the most commonly reported errors (48%) and transcribing errors (6%) were the lowest reported. While most of the reports were anonymous, only 15% identified themselves as pharmacists. Wrong dose and wrong frequency were the most frequent prescribing errors. Antibiotics (29%) were the common classes of drugs involved in the errors, followed by anticoagulants/anti-platelets (21%). Approximately 64% of the submitted incidents were reported to have occurred due to active failures that included slips, lapses, mistakes and violation, and the remaining were categorised as 'error provoking conditions' and 'latent failures'. Conclusion: The current study demonstrates the scarcity of reports from home healthcare facilities, anticipated mostly due to lack of staff or poor knowledge of reporting procedures. The majority of reports were administration errors and thus interventions should aim to minimise these. References and/or acknowledgements: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1543594606000328 No conflict of interest.