engleski

Prescribing Medication Errors: 2nd GenerationSulfonylureas

Introduction:Medication errors are unintentional errors in the prescrib-ing, dispensing, or administration of a medicine while under the control ofa healthcare professional, patient or consumer. They can cause a seriousharm to patients but are preventable in most cases. By reviewing WHOADR database (VigiBase), a small number of medication errors reportedby Croatian healthcare professionals was noticed.Aim:To identify the frequency and types of medication errors amongprescriptions for 2ndgeneration sulfonylureas.Methods:A retrospective data collection of medication errors was per-formed by analysing prescriptions for 2nd generation sulfonylureas(glimepiride, gliclazide, gliquidone, glibenclamide). A notice was postedon HALMED (Agency for Medicinal products and Medical Devices)website with the invitation to community pharmacists to report any pre- scription medication error for 2ndgeneration sulfonylureas found withintheir pharmacies’ database from February 1stto February 28th2013. Any eviation from approved prescribing information stated in Summaries ofproduct characteristic was considered medication error. Medication errornotification form was filled in for any noticed medication error, indicatingtype of prescribing medication error: wrong indication, wrong dose, wrongdrug dosing time, dividing of dose, wrong route prescribing error and lackof prescribing information.Results:One pharmacist responded to our invitation and searched data- base of two pharmacies. Among 7, 784 prescriptions, 1.45 % (113) werefor 2ndgeneration sulfonylureas. Out of 113 prescriptions, 45.1 % (51) hadmedication errors. The most common prescribing medication error wasdividing of dose which was noticed in 54.4 % (31/57) prescriptions forglimepiride, 28.6 % (7/32) for gliquidone and 21.9 % (4/14) for gliclazide.Drug overdose was noticed in 8.8 % (5/57) prescriptions for glimepirideand 6.3 % (2/32) prescriptions for gliclazide. Wrong indication was themost frequent error for gliquidone (42.9 % ; 6/14). No medication errorswere reported for glibenclamide.Conclusions:Although the studied sample was small, it showed quitealarming frequency of different types of medication errors among pre-scriptions for 2nd generation sulfonylureas. These results will be used as astarting point for further projects with larger sample of medication errorswhich will include different type of reporters, more therapeutic classes andclinical outcomes of medication errors. Better understanding of trends inmedication errors will help us to prevent them and thus improve patient safety.

Medication errors, 2nd generation sulfonylureas

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