IMPACT OF UNIT BASED CLINICAL PHARMACISTS INTERVENTIONS IN PREVENTION OF MEDICATION ERRORS IN A MULTISPECIALTY HOSPITAL

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of clinical pharmacists interventions in the prevention of medication errors. This retrospective study was carried out in Jaypee Hospital, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. All In-patients that were admitted in the hospital over the study duration were included in the study. During their hospital stay medication errors were intercepted by unit based clinical pharmacists through reviewing their prescription and intervention were made and then reported to clinical pharmacology department, this data of the past six months from November 2018 to April 2019 was obtained retrospectively and analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 25. A total 17559 prescriptions were reviewed for medication errors in which 13361 medication errors were intercepted. Among these patients who experienced medications errors 59% were males and 41% were females. The mean age of patients was found to be 50.29. The majority of medication errors intercepted were 70.68% prescription error. On assessment of severity based on NCCMERP Index, it was found that most of the medication errors belonged to category B (62%). Analysis of varience was used to assess the effectiveness of pharmacists interventions which was found to be statistically significant *P < 0.05. In this study male gender, age group of 50-70 years, medication error category B, prescribing error were found to be more prevalent. There was significant decrease in the incidence of medication errors which clearly indicates the impact of unit-based clinical pharmacists interventions in minimizing medication errors.