Authors
AGHDAS TAGHIZADEH*, MAHMOOD MOOSAZADEH**, MASOUMEH BAGHERI NESAMI***, RAVANBAKHSH ESMAEILI****
Departments
* M.Sc. Student in Intensive Care Nursing, Member of Student Research Committee, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran -
**Assistant Professor, Health Sciences Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran -
***Associate Professor, Sari Nursing & Midwifery School, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran -
****Assistant Professor, Orthopedic Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: Medication errors are the most common medical errors which are used today as an indicator to determine the level of patient safety in hospitals. According to several papers and diversity of reports on the prevalence of medication errors, the aim of this study was determination of the frequency of medication errors in Iranian hospitals using meta-analysis.
Methods: Articles were selected using the keywords including medication error, prescribing error, dispensing error, administration error, transcribing error and their Persian equivalents by searching in national and international databases. Then, documents were selected and entered into the study using criteria of systematic reviews and Meta-analysis. Due to the heterogeneity of primary studies, data was estimated using a random effects model.
Results: At the end of the search process, 33 articles were included in the study.The overall incidence of medication errors in Iranian hospitals (23.9 to 39.7) was estimated as 31.8%, prescribing error was obtained as (30.2 to 59.4) 44.8%, administration error (27.02-50.6), transcription error (3.3 to 14.9), and error preparation (9.5-23.4) have also been estimated as 38.8%, 9.1%, and 16.4%.The incidence of medication errors in Iranian hospitals was estimated 41.8% (19.8 to 63.9) based on self-reports. The dispensing error has been reported in three studies which was variable from 1.4 to 11.3%.
Conclusions: This study shows that frequency of medication errors is generally high in the drug serving processes.
Keywords
Medication error, prescribing, administration, Iran, transcribing, dispensing, preparation.
