Knowledge, attitude and practices of medication errors among pharmacy staff of Outpatient Pharmacy, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Ipoh Perak

The study of pattern of medication error in an outpatient setting at Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun (HRPB) has been explored. The objective of this study is to observe how frequent medication errors are made in the pharmacy out-patient department plus how severe the errors had caused to patients in Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun. A cross-sectional study was conducted which involved a retrospective review of new prescriptions received in outpatient pharmacy from August 2017 to January 2018. Prescriptions with error(s) were identified and errors were classified with respect to the nature of error(s), including incomplete prescriptions, incorrect or inappropriate regimen, and unacceptable medication abbreviation and brand name. The frequency and types of prescribing errors were determined. A self-administered questioned had been used to evaluate pharmacy staff members' knowledge and awareness of medication error. The study subjects are pharmacists, pharmacist assistant, provision registered pharmacist and trainees. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS® version 20.0. The data were evaluated for various parameters. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and means were used in the analysis of the data. As a result from our survey, it is clear that working experience and job position significantly affect the chance of committing medication error. This is proved when personnel with longer working experience and higher job rank scored more on knowledge score compared to the others. Majority of the respondents know about medication error and how to proceed if it occurs. According to the study, the main cause of medication error is caused by poor handwriting followed by lack of experience and 'Look Alike Sound Alike' drugs that may cause confusion. This causes most respondent to agree that in order to overcome medication error, handwriting on manual prescription should be improved aside from improving work flow and allowing multiple checking before drug dispensing to patients. All in all, medication error can be caused by many factors, be it environmental factor or individual factors. Despite various ways leading to medication error to happen are ways to effectively curb the occurence of medication