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INPATIENT PHARMACIST INTERVENTIONS IN REDUCING PRESCRIPTION-RELATED MEDICATION ERRORS IN INTENSIVE-CARE UNIT (ICU) IN RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

ABDULAZIZ ALHOSSAN 1,2*, WAAD ALHUQBANI 1, AHMED ABOGOSH 1, OMER ALKHEZI 3, MOHAMMED ALESSA 1, AJAZ AHMAD 1

1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2 Corporate of Pharmacy Services, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
3 Department of Pharmacy Practice, Unaizah College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Qassim, Saudi Arabia

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The present study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of having inpatient pharmacist interventions in reducing prescription-related medication errors in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The study also evaluates the occurrence and incidence to identify therapeutic categories and types of prescription-related medication errors. The observational and retrospective study was carried out in an Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of 6 tertiary care hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including 4 private health sector hospitals, one governmental hospital and one university teaching hospital. All prescription-related medication error reports were filled electronically by inpatient pharmacists using Computerized Physician’s Order Entry (CPOE). The study reported drug errors in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) that were detected and addressed by clinical pharmacists. A number of 9215 medication orders were collected and prescribing errors were detected. The most commonly reported prescribing errors were incomplete orders (21%), followed by drug information 16%, errors in dosing schedule (14%), duplicate drug class (10%), wrong dose (7%), wrong unit of measurement (6%), drug-drug interaction (4%), re-order requested and others (4%), wrong frequency (4%), no indication for prescription (PRN) 3%, conflicting information 3%, wrong route (2%), incomplete patient information (1%), oral and intravenous (IV) same drug order (0.1%). The most common location where the errors occurred was in the ICU (42.5%), followed by neonatal intensive care unit (NICU; 34.8%), critical care unit (CCU; 14.5%) and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU; 8.5%). The findings of our study highlight the importance of the inpatient pharmacists’ role in detecting, reporting and reducing prescription-related errors, as well as the incidence of these errors among Riyadh hospitals’ ICU departments.