Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of medication errors, incident reporting, and preventive measures implemented by anesthesiologists in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A pre-validated self-reporting questionnaire consisting of four sections and 24 questions was distributed through Google Form among anesthesiologists in Jeddah via various social media platforms.
Results: Among 110 participants who completed surveys, only 32.7% were postgraduate students, while 39 (35.5%) were working in a government hospital. Nearly half of the participants (42.7%) stated that a junior anesthetist (resident) usually loads anesthetic drugs into the syringe. Most of them (53.6%) always read the drug name on the syringe/ampoule/vial before administering a drug. At some time in their careers, only 50 participants (45.5%) acknowledged that they had made mistakes when administering drugs. Furthermore, 28 (25.5%) revealed that their patients experienced major morbidity/mortality due to medication errors. Moreover, 86 (78.2%) participants had a framework in place for reporting major incidents, and 40 (46.5%) of them undergo audits every 3 months for policy and reform. Furthermore, 56 (50.9%) participants believed that fear of medicolegal issues is the main reason behind not reporting drug administration errors by anesthesia personnel.
Conclusion: A considerable sector of those surveyed has made mistakes when administering drugs at some point in their careers. A lower but significant percentage of these mistakes has resulted in patient morbidity or death. The establishment of a critical incident reporting system is necessary for routine audits, an efficient root cause investigation of critical occurrences, and the proposal of preventative measures.

Key words: Operating room, anesthesia, burden, medication error, anesthesiologist, Saudi Arabia