Indian Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 2021;8(3):220–225 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals Indian Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology Journal homepage: https://www.ijpp.org.in/ Original Research Article A prospective longitudinal study of medication errors in private hospital of metropolitan city of Gujarat Jalpa V. Suthar 1, *, Disha Patel 1 1 Dept. of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacy, Ramanbhai Patel College of Pharmacy, Charotar University of Science and Technology, Changa, Gujarat, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 10-08-2021 Accepted 21-08-2021 Available online 04-09-2021 Keywords: Medication errors Geriatric Prescribing errors Administration errors Surgical ward Occurrence rate ABSTRACT Objective: To identify occurrence rate and to suggest management strategies for medication errors in a multi-speciality private hospital of metropolitan city of Gujarat. Materials and Methods: A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted in surgery and medicine ward of the hospital, during 15th July’2014 to 15th Jan’2015 after approval from human ethics committee. Medication errors (MEs) were categorized as prescription error (PE) and administration error (AE). The case records and treatment charts were reviewed and root causes were identified. The investigator also accompanied the staff nurse during the ward rounds and interviewed patients or care taker to gather information, if necessary. Results: A total of 230 geriatric patients (81 in Medical and 149 in surgical ward) were included. Total 23 (10.5%) in medicine and 82(37.43%) in surgical wards MEs were reported. Greater number of MEs were found in female patients 68(64.76%) as compared to male 37(35.24%). The most common ME was PEs 98 (93.33%) followed by AEs 7 (6.67%). On second day of stay higher 99(68.28%) number of MEs were found. Incomplete patient information and miscommunication were common cause of PE. Moreover, lack of communication and requisition errors was common to AEs. Conclusion: A high occurrence rate (45.65%) of MEs was observed with no serious outcome. The root causes of errors were identified and training was provided to minimized errors in future. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm, while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient or consumer- medication errors; defined by The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error (NCCMER). 1 Medication errors are a common occurrence and continue to be a problem in the health care industry. It depends on successful interaction among health care professionals functioning at different areas. Errors may occur at any stage of prescribing, documenting, dispensing, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: jalpasuthar.84@gmail.com (J. V. Suthar). preparation, or administration. 2,3 It may also a leave a negative impression on the minds of people about the hospital and may directly impact their lives. Approximately, 28% of adverse drug events (ADEs) are related to medication errors Estimation of drug-related morbidity and mortality is nearly $ 177 billion in the US. There is at least one death per day and 1.3 million people are injured each year due to medication errors 4,5 other factors that can contribute are job-related stress, improper training or education and sound-alike lookalike packaging of medications. This issue has also received considerable attention in the lay press. 6 Phillips J. et al. did a retrospective analysis of medication errors between 1993 https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijpp.2021.038 2393-9079/© 2021 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 220