THE EFFECT OF OUTPATIENT PHARMACY DISPENSING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT BY USING ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION ON MEDICATION ERRORS AT BANGCHAK HOSPITAL

Abstract

Objective: To study the incidence and measure the medication errors between pre- and post-development of the dispensing system for electronic prescription in the outpatient setting.
Methods: A retrospective study of medication errors from prescription in 3 phases: pre-system (paper prescription); system modification 1 (paper prescription and electronic prescription); and system modification 2 (electronic prescription only). Medication errors were categorized into prescribing errors, transcribing errors, and dispensing errors. The statistical analysis included descriptive statistic and Chi-square test.

Results: The incidence of medication errors (per 1000 prescriptions) between pre- and post- development were significantly different (p-value = 0.010). After system development revealed
a decrease incidence of medication errors by 0.82 (p-value = 0.010); a decrease incidence
of prescribing errors by 0.80 (p-value = 0.010); a decrease incidence of transcribing errors by 0.026 (p-value = 0.151); and an increase incidence of dispensing errors by 0.01 (p-value = 0.928).

Conclusion: The development of outpatient pharmacy dispensing by using electronic prescription was able to decrease medication errors overall and prescribing errors significantly.