A Retrospective Study on the Types & Frequency of Medication Errors in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Guwahati, Assam

Rayhan Ahmed, Dr. Paragjyoti Das, Ayatullah Ahmed, Dhanjit Das, Inamul Hassan, Muhi Uddin Sarwar Choudhury

Abstract: Introduction: In any hospital the most important aspect of Quality Care involves Correct Medication of the patients. Medications are the integral part of the treatment and care plan of any patient. One important hindrance of the treatment care plan is occurrence of medication errors. Medication errors which do happen in all setup are one of the most common as well as preventable reason of iatrogenic harm. Medication errors can happen at multiple stages starting from Transcribing error, indenting error, Dispensing error or administration error. Proper vigilance and multilevel checking is required to ensure right medication, right dose, right strength, right time and right patient. Both the pharmacy and Nursing staff should play a responsible role in ensuring prevention of any medication errors. Objectives: The current study was conducted in a reputed multispecialty hospital in Guwahati. It was conducted to find the frequency of medication errors as well as to study the types and distribution of the medication errors and resolving them for better patient care. Methodology: A Retrospective study was conducted where all the data on various types of medication errors reported in the last 2 years were collected, classified into types of error, data was analyzed using appropriate tools and interpretation was drawn. The study period was 2024 and 2025 in a 155 bedded superspeciality hospital. Results: During the study period, in total 12148 Indoor admissions took place. During the same period in total 17 instances of medication errors were reported and incident reporting was done to higher management. The number of incidents in 2024 was 10 and number of medication errors in 2025 was 7. The most type of error that was reported was Administration error (12/17; 70.5%). The most common age group of patients who were involved in the medication errors belonged to 55-69 (9/17) Majority of errors happened in patients admitted in ICU followed by patients admitted in SICU. Conclusion: From the study it can be concluded that although the incidence of Medication errors is low in the hospital, still it is a concern. If we implement Early detection appropriate timely intervention of all types of Medication errors, it can vastly improve the treatment outcome. It is very important for any hospital to implement appropriate reporting of all types of medication errors in a timely basis with proper incident reporting system with RCA and CAPA. The management should take upon themselves the onus of educating pharmacists as well as nursing staff regarding effects of medication errors. They should be made aware that proper control on medication errors plays a important part in reduction of overall cost of treatment as well as positively impacting and improving the standard of patient care and safety. [1] Medication errors have been shown to directly affect patient safety with the potential to cause adverse drug events (ADEs). They having been proven to be directly linked with increase in overall morbidity and mortality. Any such event is associated with prolonged hospital stays. [2]

Keywords: RCA, CAPA, Medication Errors, Dispensing Errors, Indenting error, Administration error

How to Cite?: Rayhan Ahmed, Dr. Paragjyoti Das, Ayatullah Ahmed, Dhanjit Das, Inamul Hassan, Muhi Uddin Sarwar Choudhury, "A Retrospective Study on the Types & Frequency of Medication Errors in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Guwahati, Assam", Volume 14 Issue 8, August 2025, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 1114-1118, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=MR25821134633, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/MR25821134633