Understanding and Analyzing Prescribing and Prescription Errors in Outpatient Setting of a Medical College Hospital ENT Department

A medication error is a failure in the treatment process that leads to, or has the potential to lead to, harm to the patient. In the hospital OPD, errors can occur in deciding on the medication to be prescribed (prescribing error) or in writing the prescription (prescription error).Materials and MethodsWe analyzed 100 prescriptions and case sheets in the OPD of ENT department in a tertiary medical college hospital for a period of one week for errors and assessed the perceptions and attitudes of the residents of the department using a questionnaire.ResultSeveral prescription writing errors were found, primarily failure to document non pharmaceutical patient advice and use of generic names. Four prescribing errors were noticed which did not need urgent intervention.DiscussionFailure modes and effects analysis was done to rank the failures modes; and causes for failure were elucidated using Ishikawa Diagram. Recommendations for preventing errors were made based on these results.ConclusionThis study illustrates the use of management techniques to identify errors and formulate appropriate preventive responses. Such techniques should be a part of ongoing departmental management; and they provide insights into improving resident training in an ENT residency program.