Purpose:
To assess the type and frequency of medication
administration errors (MAEs) in the paediatric ward of
Jimma University Specialized Hospital (JUSH), Jimma,
Oromia Region, southwestern Ethiopia.
Methods:
A
prospective case-based observational study was
performed. The required data were collected by observing
the health professionals and attendants in charge of
administering medications to in-patients in the three
units of the paediatric ward of JUSH from February 18 to
March 2, 2009.
Results:
A
total of 196 (89.9 %) MAEs were identified from the 218
observations made. From these, 178 (90.8 %) occurred
with intravenous (IV) bolus medications while 16 (8.2 %)
of them pertained to oral medications. The most frequent
of the MAEs observed was wrong time error with 55 errors
or 28.1 % of the total, while 52 (26.5 %) were dose
errors and 42 (21.4 %) were due to drugs omitted during
drug administration. Furthermore, wrong administration
technique errors and unauthorized drug errors were 41
(20.9 %) and 6 (3.1 %), respectively. The drug mostly
associated with error was gentamicin with 29 errors
(31.2 %).
Conclusion:
During the
study, a high frequency of error was observed. There is
a need to modify the way information is handled and
shared by professionals as wrong time error was the most
implicated error. Attention should also be given to IV
medication administration with special emphasis on
gentamicin, ampicillin, cloxacillin and crystalline
penicillin.
Keywords:
Medication administration error, Omission error, Wrong
dose, Wrong administration technique, Unauthorized drug.
