MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out to evaluate the prescribing, and dispensing errors in outpatients who seek patient counseling at the tertiary care multispecialty hospital. The data were collected from various sources such as patient's prescriptions and dispensing records from the pharmacy.
RESULTS: A total of 500 prescriptions were screened and identified 65.60% of prescriptions with at least any one type of medication errors. Out of 328 prescriptions, 96.04% were handwritten and 3.96% were computerised prescriptions. Among the 328 prescriptions with medication errors, 32.62% noticed prescribing errors, 37.80% with dispensing errors, and 29.58% with both prescribing and dispensing errors. Out of these 328 prescriptions, 74.09% prescriptions were found to have polypharmacy.
DISCUSSION: Medication errors are serious problems in healthcare and can be a source of significant morbidity and mortality in healthcare settings. The present study showed that dispensing errors were the most common among the types of medication errors, in these particularly wrong directions were the most common types of errors.
CONCLUSION: This study concludes that the overall prevalence of medication errors was around 80%, but there were no life-threatening events observed. A clinical pharmacist can play a major role in this situation appears to be a strong intervention and early detection and prevention of medication errors and thus can improve the quality of care to the patients.
METHODS: A total of 138 patients aged between 18 and 65 years old with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) I or II status, who required general anaesthesia and had no contraindication towards the use of P-LMA™, were recruited. They were randomly positioned into three anatomical landmarks, which were umbilicus, lowest rib margin, and xiphoid. P-LMA™ was inserted following muscle paralysis, and the first successful placement was evaluated using positional and performance tests. Duration, ease of P-LMA™ insertion, and airway complications were compared.
RESULTS: Demographic and airway features were comparable among all groups. The P-LMA™ placement success rate improved when the table height was positioned at the lowest rib margin (p=0.002). All three positions were comparable in terms of duration, ease of insertion, and airway morbidities.
CONCLUSION: The lowest rib margin anatomical landmark can be used as a guide in achieving the optimal operating table height for successful P-LMA™ placement.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 134 postgraduate trainees from the departments of general surgery (Surgical), orthopaedic surgery (Ortho), otorhinolaryngology (ENT), obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN), as well as anaesthesiology and intensive care (Anaesth) were recruited. A validated questionnaire was used to assess awareness and knowledge. All participants attended a medical-education session and completed the questionnaire as preassessment and postassessment. Data were analysed, and comparisons between disciplines were conducted.
RESULTS: The trainees' awareness of LAST was overall poor at preassessment which improved almost 6-folds at postassessment. Surprisingly, only 20 (45.5%) participants from the anaesthesiology group had awareness of LAST at preassessment, and none of the participants were from surgical, orthopaedic, and obstetrics and gynaecology departments. Preassessment scores were significantly higher in the anaesth group as compared to all other groups; with a difference in the average score for Anaesth vs Surgical of 3.46 (95%, CI:2.17, 4.74), Anaesth vs Ortho of 3.64 (95%, CI:2.64, 4.64), Anaesth vs ENT of 3.43 (95%, CI:2.20, 4.67), and Anaesth vs OBGYN of 6.93 (95%, CI:5.64, 8.21). However, there was no significant difference of awareness scores between all participants at postassessment scores.
CONCLUSION: The overall level of awareness was poor. However, the implementation of an education session significantly improved the knowledge and awareness across all disciplines.