Background: Whether an adverse drug event (ADE) occurred or not, medication errors (MEs) are thought to be a barrier that prevents patients from administering the right dose of treatments at the proper time at any point in the process of taking treatments. It was found that medication errors caused about 7,000 patient deaths, and these errors accounted for 30% of all issues in hospitals. This study aimed at assessing the incidents of medication errors at a tertiary care center of King Fahd Hospital, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2015 of patients' residents at a bed tertiary care hospital. The hospital's medication safety reporting program was used by healthcare professionals to report many types of safety incidents, including MEs. Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 20. A P value < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The study included 491 patients; their ages ranged between < 20 to >60 years old, and 53.2% were females. The most identified drug-related problems (DRPs) were single (73.1%), and 12.2% of DRPs were multiple. The most common DRP types were improper dosage (38.9%) and wrong frequency (35.3%), followed by wrong drug (9.3%) or omission error (8.8%). The gender of patients was the only significant factor associated with medication error incidence. The type of DRP was the significant factor affecting the multiplicity of DRP.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated a high prevalence of drug-related problems in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. More training and knowledge in prescribing and administering drugs should be provided to healthcare professionals.
Key words: Medication Error, drug related problems, prevalence, factors.
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