Improving the accuracy of electronic prescribing in West Bay Health Center in Qatar

Primary healthcare in Qatar uses electronic prescribing to reduce the risk of medication errors. Electronic prescribing is supported by computerized Physician Order Entry systems through Cerner (electronic medical record system). There are still prescription errors, despite electronic prescribing being in place for one year at West Bay Health Center. West Bay Health Center is a famous primary healthcare center in Qatar. It is a training center for the family medicine residency program, which is accredited by the accreditation council of general medical education international (ACGME-I). It serves a population of about 98,000 in Qatar with 35 physicians and 12 pharmacists. The aim of this project was to decrease medication errors by 30% from baseline measurement (according to type of error) from October 2015 to March 2016. It was found that there was a discrepancy between the pharmacy medication list and the list within Cerner. A master drug index was created to eliminate the discrepancy. Training on the use of this index was provided through lectures and one to one education, with material also sent through email. We found that there was some resistance from the physician side and therefore introduced a second intervention. We sent out a survey to find out more about these difficulties and provided more training and education. Our results showed an decrease in the proportion of wrong dose errors from 11.8% to 10.6%, wrong name from 6.9% to 6.2%, wrong duration from 11.7% to 10.3%, and non-formulary drug errors from 2.6% to 1.6%.