Abstract
Objectives: To investigate the period prevalence and risk factors for clinically important prescription and monitoring errors among adults managed in community care in Saudi Arabia (SA).
Methods: This retrospective cohort study used electronic health record (HER) data. A random sample comprising of 2,000 adults (≥18 years old) visiting Family Medicine clinics in King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH & RC), Riyadh, SA, was selected. Data collection took 3 months (October December 2017). Descriptive analyses and logistic regression modeling were performed using STATA (version 14) statistical software.
Results: The overall period prevalence of medication errors over 15 months was 8.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.5-9.7). Risk factors that significantly predicted overall risk of patients experiencing one or more medication errors were: age ≥65 years, male gender, Saudi nationality, and polypharmacy (defined as the concurrent use of ≥5 drugs).
Conclusions: Clinically important medication errors were commonly observed in relation to both drug prescription and monitoring.
Footnotes
Disclosure. Authors have no conflict of interests, and the work was not supported or funded by any drug company. The project was financially supported by the Prince Abdullah bin Khalid Celiac Disease Research Chair, Vice Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Received October 16, 2018.
- Accepted January 1, 2019.
- Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal
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