G60(P)\u2005Quality improvement project aiming to reduce prescribing errors and, hence, the number of medication related incidents

Abstract

Background The number of medication related incidents is common amongst children particularly when it involves the 0–4 age group. We aimed to identify the prescription errors that contributed to medication related incidents. Method Our study population included 0–16\u2009year old inpatients from paediatric wards and NICU. We collected data on whether the key components of the drug chart were completed adequately for these inpatients. This included demographic details, legibility, correct dose, route, frequency and prescriber details. We audited 25 drug charts per week. This was first started in December 2016. In August 2017 teaching sessions on prescribing errors were offered to all juniors during their trust induction. We distributed a booklet on prescribing errors to further add to their learning. Thereafter we continued our data collection from September 2017 onwards, which is ongoing currently. Results From September 2017 onwards, the number of drug charts without errors have remained at 80% or above with the probability of this occurring by chance being 0.0156. This has resulted in the number of incidents for prescribing drug errors gradually decline, with only 1 incident reported in June 2018 Table 1. Conclusion Prescribing errors are preventable and our ongoing teaching sessions and prescribing errors booklets from August 2017 have helped reduce the number drug charts with errors at our department. We are hoping this will continue to reduce our number of medication related incidents per month.Abstract G60(P) Table 1 Drug charts without prescribing errors (%) Wards 1st week 12/16 2nd week 12/16 1st week 01/17 1st week 09/17 2nd week 09/17 1st week 10/17 2nd week 10/17 1st week 11/17 2nd week 12/17 1st week 06/18 NICU 100 80 70 100 100 100 80 100 80 100 Puffin 80 70 40 90 80 80 90 90 100 100 Wagtail 60 80 100 100 90 90 80 80 90 100