Analysis of prescription errors in a hospital of southern Brazil

Abstract

Objective: Analyze the errors of prescription in a hospital located in the south of Brazil. Method: This is a transversal study, in which the sample is compose of all hospital prescription in a period of 6 months. To analyze these instructions, an checking instrument was used, which was elaborated based on the current law. The data was double typed in order to analyze inconsistency and for that, Microsoft Office Excel 2007 was used as a tool. Was calculated the frequency and kind of prescription errors. Results: 2687 prescriptions were analyzed being detected the following errors: absence of dosage (92.7%), absence of pharmaceutical form (83.1%), presence of abbreviations (70.3%), absence of age (63.7%), absence of inpatient unit (57.1%), absence of concentration (38.2%), absence of stamp professional (17.6%), absence of bed (16.3%), presence of code, initials or number (15.8%), illegibility (13.2%), absence of registration number of Council professional (12.6%), presence of erasures (12.2%), incomplete patient name (7.9%), absence of data (2.0%), absence of route of administration (1.3%) and professional subscription absence (0.9%). Conclusion: Prescriptions errors are frequent and could bring several harms to patients. For these facts, a hospital pharmacist is important to analyze the prescription before of the medicine distribution. In this way, the pharmacist can contribute to increase the rational used of medicines decreasing errors and adverse events. Moreover, he provides a better quality of aid, lowering costs.