Frequency of medication errors in an emergency department of a large teaching hospital in southern Iran

Figures & data

Table 1 General characteristics of patients, nurses, work shifts, and weekly days during the study

Variables	Frequency	Percentage	Frequency r of observed doses	Percent of observed doses
Patient variables
Sex
Male	118	58.4	596	57.8
Female	84	41.6	435	42.2
Nurse variables
Sex
Male	12	35.3	406	39.4
Female	22	64.7	625	60.6
Level of education
Bachelor	26	76.5	702	68.0
Diploma	8	23.5	329	32.0
Work shifts and weekly days
Observed shifts
Morning	29	53.7	673	65.3
Afternoon	25	46.3	358	34.7
Days of the week
Saturday	8	14.8	153	14.8
Sunday	9	16.6	177	17.1
Monday	7	13.0	141	13.7
Tuesday	9	16.6	162	15.7
Wednesday	8	14.8	149	14.5

Table 2 Number and percentage of pharmacological categories of observed doses (n=1,031) during the study

Drug class	Number	Percentage of total reports
Antimicrobials	251	24.3
Cardiovascular	164	15.9
Gastrointestinal	150	14.6
Anticoagulants	117	11.4
Hormones	81	7.9
CNS	62	6.0
Respiratory	59	5.7
Hematologic	51	4.9
Vitamins	38	3.7
Sedatives/analgesics	30	2.9
Electrolytes	19	1.8
Others	9	0.9
Total	1,031	100

Table 3 Route of administration of observed doses (n=1,031) during the study

Route of administration	Number	Percentage
Oral	562	54.5
Continuous infusion	286	27.7
Subcutaneous	73	7.1
Inhalation	34	3.3
Intravenous	26	2.5
Intramuscular	19	1.8
Topical	17	1.7
Intraocular	14	1.4
Total	1,031	100

Table 4 Discrete demographic information of the patients (n=202) and the nurses in the study of medication errors occurred at tertiary care emergency department of the study hospital

Numeric variable	Standard deviation	Mean	Max	Min
Age of the patients (years)	18.17	53	97	5
Age of the nurses (years)	5.1	26.7	45	21
Experience of nurses	2.3	5*	21	0.5
Patient to nurse ratio	3.1	11	18	4

Note:

* Since the standard deviation is larger than the mean, the median is reported instead of the standard deviation (median =5.00).

Table 5 Types of medication errors that occurred in tertiary level emergency department of the study hospital

Type of errors	Number of errors	Percentage of errors (N=1,031)
Prescription errors
Wrong drug	14	1.4
Omission	8	0.8
Wrong frequency	19	1.8
Wrong time	16	1.6
Forgot to discontinue	0	0
Contraindications	0	0
Monitoring*	53	5.1
Wrong dose (over)	22	2.2
Wrong dose (under)	8	0.8
Interactions	37	3.6
Forget to order	23	2.2
Others	17	1.6
Total prescription error	217	21.1
Transcription errors
Omission	59	5.7
Wrong dose (over)	13	1.3
Wrong dose (under)	11	1.1
Wrong frequency	7	0.7
Wrong time	0	0
Forget to discontinue	4	0.4
Others	8	0.8
Total transcription error	102	10.0
Administration errors
Omission	78	7.6
Wrong time	45	4.4
Wrong dosage form	0	0
Wrong dose	12	1.1
Wrong route	4	0.4
Wrong rate	33	3.2
Wrong preparation	32	3.1
Administration of unordered drug	8	0.8
Wrong technique	23	2.2
Deteriorated drug	0	0
Others	153	14.8
Total administration error	388	37.6

Note:

* Monitoring errors were calculated according to possible occurrences of the error; as a result, in calculating this error, the denominator was 134 (number of occasions that required monitoring), not 1,031.