Assessment of Types and Patterns of Medication Errors Among Pediatrics In-Patients at Yekatit 12 Referral Hospital

Abstract

Background: Medication errors are a significant factor in patient damage and include any mistakes made in the prescription, distribution, administration, or monitoring of a medicine. Even though pharmaceutical errors are the single most avoidable cause of patient injury, children are considerably more likely to die from them than adults are. Objective: To assess Types and Patterns of Medication Errors among pediatric in-patients at Yekatit 12 referral hospital from February 2022 to June 2022. Methods: Hospital-based cross-sectional involving chart review and the patient interview was conducted from February 2022 to June 2022 at Yekatit 12 Referral Hospital. A consecutive sampling method was used and Descriptive statistics were used to present all data regarding medication error. Results: Among 161 pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric wards, 55% of patients had medication errors while 45% of patients had no medication errors. The most identified medication error was documentation error which accounts for 35.9% of identified medication errors. A dosing error was the second identified medication error at 24.7%. Medication error was higher among patients prescribed antibiotics 57.1% and it was higher among patients diagnosed with pneumonia which is 55.9%. Conclusion: Among studied pediatric patients, greater than half of patients had medication errors. Documentation errors were the most medication errors identified. Among the medications prescribed, antibiotics were the most prescribed medication and the class most medications with a high medication error. Medication errors were high among patients diagnosed with pneumonia.