Abstract

Ginenus Fekadu*, Firomsa Bekele and Dinka Dugassa

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The purpose of dispensing is to ensure that an effective form of the correct drug is given to the right patient in the prescribed dosage and quality with clear instruction and in a container which maintain the potency of drug. However, there is limited data in Nekemte Referral Hospital showing the extent of dispensing error and their cause. Objective: To identify and describe the prevalence and types of dispensing errors and their cause in Nekemte Referral Hospital Pharmacy (NRHP). Method: A cross sectional prospective study design using structured observational check list was conducted in Nekemte Referral Hospital Pharmacy from April to May, 2018. In addition, in depth interview was conducted with the hospital pharmacists to explore the possible cause dispensing error. Result: In this study total of 384 patient prescription have been analyzed and the dispensing error obtained and have been categorized in to five groups this include error during checking, patient identification, content error, labeling error, counseling error. From a total of 384 prescription paper observed (75.5%, n=384), (91.6%, n=384) (98.9%, 384) of prescription were dispensed without checking the patient’s name, age, sex respectively and 300(78.1%) patients were receiving the verbal counseling on how much to take and when to take the dispensed drug while (21.9, n=384) are dispensed without pharmacist’s counseling on how much to take and when to take the drug. From 716 dispensed drugs or items all of the drugs dispensed did not include patient name on the labeling and content error was recorded (21.8%, n=384). Conclusion:- From this it is found that in NRHP there are four major types of error, which is error during patient identification, content, labeling and counseling error. Among this labeling and counseling error take the higher figure and content error the least number. Also There are a number of factors cited by the pharmacist/druggist as potentially affecting dispensing error rate in order of their relevance these are high prescription volume, work load, stress, fatigue, storing drug with similar name near to each other, many items in one prescription and the policy of the hospital pharmacy are the most common.