Abstract
The objective was to investigate the prevalence, severity and potential causes of prescribing and transcribing errors among pediatrics and pregnant women in a Ministry of Health hospital (MOH) in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia. This was a cross-sectional study conducted in a 500 beds MOH hospital in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia. The prescriptions of all patients (pregnant women and pediatrics) were reviewed prospectively by the research pharmacists. When a prescribing or transcribing error was found the complete narrative of the incidence was written in the data form along demographics The types, potential causes and severity of the errors was also identified and discussed among the research team to reach a fmal decision. The statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL), version 22.0. A total of 358 prescribing and transcribing errors were identified in 330 (81.7%) of the total records (n = 404) reviewed. The most common types of prescribing errors were writing a drug's name using abbreviations or other non-standard nomenclature (18.4%), potential over-dose (7.8%) and prescription of a drug in a potentially sub-therapeutic dose (6.9%). Antibiotics were associated with more prescribing errors (45.2%), followed by minerals & supplements (13.1%) and analgesics (12.8%). Human errors (39.7%), were the most commonly cause of error followed by a combination of human factor and communication (24.3%) and human factor and name confusion (17%). Prescription errors are very common in Ministry of Health hospitals and caused mainly by human errors. Hospital administration should follow best practices to avoid prescription errors and improve patient safety.