ASSESSMENT OF MEDICATION ERRORS IN PSYCHIATRY PRACTICE IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objectives: To determine the incidence, causes, patterns, outcomes and predictors of medication errors (ME) in psychiatric practice. Methodology: A prospective observational study was conducted in the psychiatry department of a tertiary care hospital over a period of 6 months. Patients of either sex and aged ≥ 18 years receiving at least one psychotropic agent were included in the study and analyzed for the ME.   The collected data was analyzed for the incidence, causes and patterns of medication errors. Predictors of medication errors were determined using bivariate non parametric analysis. The variables considered to determine predictors were age, gender, length of hospital stay and number of medications. Results: During the study period 215 medication errors were identified from 166 patients and the incidence of medication error was found to be 1.3 per patient. The average number of ME in a patient was 2.1. The most common types of medication errors observed were dose omission (42.12%), wrong technique (11.57%) and wrong administration (10.60%). Factors responsible for medication errors were performance deficit of nursing staff, lack of training of nursing staff and knowledge deficit of physician which accounted to 33.33%, 26.38% and 11.57% respectively. Male gender and ≥6 medications were observed to be the predictors of MEs. Conclusion: Majority of errors that occurred in our study patients reached the patients but did not cause any harm. Conducting awareness and education programs for Health Care Professionals (HCPs) especially nursing staff regarding the safe handling of drugs can minimize the incidence of ME.