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Prescribing errors in pediatric outpatient department at a tertiary care hospital in Malaysia

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Abstract

Background Prescribing errors in children are common due to individualization of dosage regimen. It potentially has a great impact especially in this vulnerable population. Objective To determine the prevalence and common types of prescribing errors in a Malaysian pediatric outpatient department and to determine the factors contributing to prescribing errors. Setting Pediatric Outpatient Department and Outpatient Pharmacy at a tertiary care hospital in Malaysia. Method This is a prospective, cross sectional observational study where all new prescriptions received by the outpatient pharmacy from patients attending pediatric out-patient clinic were included for analysis. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Main outcome measure Frequency, types, potential clinical consequences and contributing factors of prescribing errors. Results Two hundred and fifty new prescriptions with 493 items were analyzed. There were 13 per 100 prescriptions with at least one prescribing error and 7.3% of the total items were prescribed incorrectly. The most common types of prescribing error were, an ambiguous prescription (61.1%) followed by an unrecommended dose regimen (13.9%). Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of a prescribing error significantly increased when the prescription was written by a house officer (OR 4.72, p = 0.029). Errors were judged to be potentially non-significant (33.3%), significant (36.1%), or serious (30.6%). Conclusion The experience of prescribers is an important factor that contributes to prescribing errors in pediatrics. Many of the errors made were potentially serious and may impact on the patients’ well-being.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all my collegue pharmacists; Toon Wai Yiing, Rayhel Kaur Dhillon, Amirah Adhwani Jamari, Nurul Atikah Radzi and Athirah Aiman Shahrulnizan who helped out collecting all relevant prescriptions and the pediatrician Dr Su Siew Choo, who corroborated the results of this study.

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This study did not receive any funding.

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  1. Department of Pharmacy, Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Jalan Langat, 41200, Klang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Jian Lynn Lee

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Correspondence to Jian Lynn Lee.

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Lee, J.L. Prescribing errors in pediatric outpatient department at a tertiary care hospital in Malaysia. Int J Clin Pharm 42, 604–609 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-020-00996-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-020-00996-4

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