AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To
investigate the prevalence of transcription errors in a main public hospital in
Pakistan and to test the impact of medication name and dose writing styles and
the nurse duty duration on the occurrence of transcription errors.
BACKGROUND: Medication errors
occur frequently in public hospitals. Errors occurring at the transcription
stage have not been sufficiently investigated.
DESIGN: Medications transcripts
and dispensed item labels were prospectively reviewed. In the second stage,
nurses (n=25) transcribed medication charts in a double-blind randomised
cross-over design administered at one, six and 10 hours after the commencement
of their duty.
METHODS. Inpatient (n=1000), discharge patient (n=1000) medication transcripts
and labels of dispensed items for (n=1000) transcripts were reviewed. On
medication charts, orthographically similar medications (n=20) were written in
lowercase and Tall Man, decimal doses were written covered and uncovered, and
metric doses were written with and without trailing zeros.
RESULTS: Of the 6583 and 5329
medications transcribed from inpatient and discharge patient charts, error
rates were 16·9 and 13·8%, respectively. Labels for 6734 dispensed items were
reviewed, and error rate was 6·1%. Tall Man, covered decimal points and
avoiding trailing zeros with decimal units significantly reduced transcription
errors.
CONCLUSION: Errors increased with
increasing nurse duty duration. Highlighting orthographically similar
medications and the use of proper decimal and metric units reduce errors.
RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Transcription
errors are highly prevalent in Pakistan public hospitals; therefore,
elimination of transcription stage is encouraged.
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Transcription_Errors_in_Pakistan_Public_Hospitals_Impact_of_Writing_Style_and_Long_Duty_Hours..pdf | 52.62 KB |