Study on dispensing errors of inpatient prescriptions in a tertiary care hospital

Dispensing is an integral part of drug therapy and errors in it can cause some major complications. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence and determine the various types of dispensing errors occurring in inpatient prescriptions; also to create awareness among the pharmacy professionals about the various types of dispensing errors and thus help to minimize them. The present study is a prospective one which involves the inpatient prescriptions from a period of Dec 2007 to September 2008. The prescriptions of the patients admitted in the general wards were included in the study. The errors reported by the nurses, were documented by the pharmacist in a dispensing error report form. All the documented errors were collected, analyzed and categorized into the various types. The frequency of occurrence of different types of dispensing errors was calculated. The incidence of dispensing errors was found to be 4.8% and the most frequent type of dispensing error was found to be wrong medication (43.1%).