Evaluation of medication error reports sent to Food and Drug deputy from hospitals affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences during 2015-2018

Background and purpose: Medical errors are one of the most common threats to patient safety. Medication errors have a number of consequences, including the increase in patient mortality, length of stay, and healthcare costs. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted by Food and Drug Deputy of Mazandaran University on medication errors reported received from covered hospitals during 2015-2018. The analysis was performed on the basis of the frequency of the drugs, frequency of routs of administration, frequency of the type and the cause of the error. Results: Out of 3033 reported cases, The results of data analysis indicated that the highest percentage of these error was related to Antibiotics (22.84%), According to the results, the most common type of error was due to Incorrect drug (44.18%), Incorrect dose (25.65%) and drug omission (16.68%) and the most common cause of error was related to " Neglecting and lack of sufficient accuracy by the medical team " (38.24%) and " No insertion or incorrect insertion of the details of prescribed medications (in Kardex, HIS, etc.) by nurse"(14.96%). Conclusion: Regular in-hospital training for medical staff focused on teaching the standards required for the administration and use of various medications, and identification of common medication errors can lead to the development of guidelines to reduce these errors in hospitals and use them in the wards. In addition, Providing measures such as the use of electronic prescription and medications systems based on a unit-dose drug distribution system can also help to reduce medication errors.