Open AccessMedication errors involving anticoagulants: Data from the Danish patient safety database
Author(s) -
Henriksen Jakob Nørgaard,
Nielsen Lars Peter,
Hellebek Annemarie,
Poulsen Birgitte Klindt
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
pharmacology research and perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.975
H-Index - 27
ISSN - 2052-1707
DOI - 10.1002/prp2.307
Subject(s) - medicine , warfarin , adverse effect , danish , dosing , incident report , emergency medicine , pharmacovigilance , vitamin k antagonist , medical emergency , intensive care medicine , atrial fibrillation , philosophy , linguistics , forensic engineering , engineering
Abstract Reporting of adverse incidents is mandatory in Denmark. All reported adverse incidents are made anonymously, and stored in an encrypted database. It is the purpose of this descriptive study to describe the severity of adverse medication incidents caused by oral anticoagulants in hospitals. All moderate, severe and fatal reports concerning non‐vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants were analyzed from date of marketing until July 8 2014. The data collection for warfarin was from January 1 2014 until July 8 2014. Three independent specialists in clinical pharmacology evaluated the severity of incident outcomes. A total of 147 adverse medication incidents were analyzed, and showed that de facto or potentially fatal and serious incidents were most frequently associated with sector change (admission to or discharge from hospital, or undergoing surgery) and resulted from insufficient or excess dosing. Physicians should be aware when prescribing and changing anticoagulant therapy to avoid severe or fatal incidents.