EVALUATION OF MEDICATION ERROR TYPES AND PATTERNS AMONG PEDIATRIC IN-PATIENTS AT ZEWUDETU GENERAL HOSPITAL

Takele Achalu Dengela*

Background: Any mistakes made in the prescription, distribution, administration, or monitoring of a medication are considered medication errors and contribute significantly to patient harm. Even though medication errors are the greatest preventable cause of patient damage, children are much more likely to die from them than adults are. Objective: To assess types and patterns of medication Errors among pediatrics in-patients at Zewudetu general hospital from June 2023 to August 2023. Methods: From June to August 2023, a cross-sectional study at Zewudetu General Hospital that included a review of medical records and patient interviews was carried out. The entire set of information regarding medication error was presented using the consecutive sampling method and descriptive statistics. Results: 45% of the 161 pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric wards did not have a medication error, compared to 55% who did. Documentation error made up 35.9% of all discovered pharmaceutical errors, making it the most common. The second most common pharmaceutical error (24.7%) was a dosing error. Medication mistake was more common in patients who were given antibiotic prescriptions (57.1%) and in patients who had pneumonia (55.9%). Conclusion: Among studied pediatric patients, greater than half of patient had medication error. Documentation error was the most medication error identified. Among medication prescribed, antibiotics were the most prescribed medication and the most class of medication with high medication error. Medication error was high among patients diagnosed with pneumonia.