Investigating medication errors regarding rational use of antidotes in poisoned patients hospitalized at the poisoning wards of Sina Hospital (a retrospective study)

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most frequent categories of medical errors that increase hospitalized patient mortality, length of stay, and costs to the healthcare system is medication error. As a result, it's critical to employ the right techniques to stop these mistakes. Additionally, as antidotes are expensive, rare, special, and strategic medications, it's critical to look into the rational usage of these medications at the university level. Aim: to investigate medication errors regarding the rational use of antidotes in poisoned patients hospitalized at the poisoning wards of a teaching hospital (Sina Hospital) affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical sciences (a retrospective study).Methods: This cross-sectional and retrospective study was conducted over a period of six months at Sina Hospital. The files of 1000 poisoned patients were randomly reviewed and among them 146 patients who took antidote were included in the study. First, the necessary information was collected through demographic, clinical and laboratory data collection forms, and then the rational use of antidote form was filled out for each patient separately.Results: Out of 146 patients who entered the study, 24.65% of patients (36 patients) experienced at least one medication error. The incidence of medication errors per patient was 0.3 errors. Out of the total of 44 errors that occurred, the most errors were related to medication dosage errors (52.27%), which mainly led to the imposition of additional costs on the patient. Errors related to problems while taking medicine (38.63%), difficulty in choosing medicine (4.55%) and problems while rewriting doctor's prescription (4.55%) were in the next categories.Conclusion: Due to the presence of the poisoning clinical doctor in Sina Hospital and the direct supervision of the patients' treatment process, fortunately no significant error leading to complications or death occurred.