Determining Medication Errors in an Adult Intensive Care Unit

Renata da Nóbrega Souza de Castro, Lucas Barbosa de Aguiar, Cris Renata Grou Volpe, Calliandra Maria de Souza Silva, Izabel Cristina Rodrigues da Silva (), Marina Morato Stival, Everton Nunes da Silva, Micheline Marie Milward de Azevedo Meiners and Silvana Schwerz Funghetto
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Renata da Nóbrega Souza de Castro: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Lucas Barbosa de Aguiar: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Cris Renata Grou Volpe: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Calliandra Maria de Souza Silva: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Izabel Cristina Rodrigues da Silva: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Marina Morato Stival: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Everton Nunes da Silva: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Micheline Marie Milward de Azevedo Meiners: Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil
Silvana Schwerz Funghetto: Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Ceilandia, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brasília 72220-275, Brazil

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 18, 1-10

Abstract: Introduction: Research addressing the costs of Medication errors (MEs) is still scarce despite issues related to patient safety having significant economic and health impacts, making it imperative to analyze the costs and adverse events related to MEs for a better patient, professional, and institutional safety. Aim: To identify the number of medication errors and verify whether this number was associated with increased hospitalization costs for patients in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Method: This retrospective cross-sectional cohort study evaluated secondary data from patients’ electronic medical records to compile variables, create a model, and survey hospitalization costs. The statistical analysis included calculating medication error rates, descriptive analysis, and simple and multivariate regression. Results: The omission error rate showed the highest number of errors per drug dose (59.8%) and total errors observed in the sample (55.31%), followed by the time error rate (26.97%; 24.95%). The omission error had the highest average when analyzing the entire hospitalization (170.40) and day of hospitalization (13.79). Hospitalization costs were significantly and positively correlated with scheduling errors, with an increase of BRL 121.92 (about USD $25.00) (95% CI 43.09; 200.74), and to prescription errors, with an increase of BRL 63.51 (about USD $3.00) (95% CI 29.93; 97.09). Conclusion: We observed an association between two types of medication errors and increased hospitalization costs in an adult ICU (scheduling and prescription errors).

Keywords: medication error; patient safety; hospital costs; cost; cost analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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