MEDICATION ERRORS AND DRUG-DRUG INTERACTIONS THROUGH PRESCRIPTION ANALYSIS AT DIFFERENT HEALTH CARE CENTRES

The objective of the study was to appraise the incidence and patterns of medication errors occurring in a random population, at multiple sites in the regional health care centers. The patients and drug charts were identified through routine ward rounds and prescription monitoring of all departments. In the present study, a total of 250 prescriptions gathered over the study period and were assessed for medication errors, which was the primary outcome of the study. Out of 94 medication errors reported, most frequent errors were compliance errors 36, omission errors 28, followed by prescription errors 16, wrong time administration errors 14. The further differentiation was NCCMERP error categorization, namely category A (15), category B (20), category C(18), category D(6), category F(2), category G(1), while category E, category H, category I were not reported. The secondary outcome of the study is drug-drug interactions. Of the 154 drug-drug interactions, interactions with major severity accounted for 73(47%), while those with moderate and minor severity accounted for 63(40%) and 18(13%) respectively. Even though our study is of small scale we figured out much medication errors which evidences that the current health care system should adopt some standard monitoring procedures to minimize the errors and drug-drug interactions in order to improve a better care. Measures as obtaining detailed patient history, medication reconciliation and continuing follow up could propagate a better understanding