Evaluating of rate and cost of dispensing errors in community pharmacies in Tehran

Introduction: Prescribing and dispensing errors are among of important and common causes of medication errors. The aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence rate of dispensing errors in community pharmacies in Tehran and evaluate the following costs. Method:This descriptive-analytic study is cross sectional. The data was collected through exit surveys and reviewing the medications dispensed to patients and also interview with pharmacists. Then, the probable cost of dispensing errors was estimated. SPSS-25 software was used to analyze the data.Results: A total of 275 pharmacies were entered the study. Nine medication errors at the incidence rate of 3.3%, which included errors in the name of the medication (2), medication dose errors (2), error in the quantity of medication (1) and labelling errors (4), were recognized. Eight errors(2.91%) were related to private daily pharmacies and one error (0.363%) was related to night pharmacies, but no error were found at the hospital pharmacies. The therapeutic and nontherapeutic cost of 9 medication errors came to a total of 5ˏ288ˏ384 Rials, and 587ˏ598 Rials pererror. Considering the rate of dispensing errors and the total prescription in a year showed that 680 trillion Rials would be the cost of this phenomenon per year. Furthermore, according to pharmacists’ interview, physician s illegible handwriting (95.6%), patient s urgency in receivingthe medication (60.7%), manpower experience (45.5%), distractions (39.6%), improper orders of medications on the shelves (26.9%) and manual prescription pricing (15.6%) were the most important causes of near-miss dispensing errors. Conclusion: The results of this study showed thatthe probability of dispensing error is less and most of them included small errors, however, in comparison with other countries is still suboptimal. Recognizing the types of dispensing errors and underlying causes can provide a picture of the existing condition to policy makers and otherpractitioners.

Keywords:

errors , medication error cost , Community Pharmacy , Patient Safety ,