Relationship between the use of an electronic commercial prescribing system and medical and medication errors in a teaching hospital

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effects of a commercial electronic prescribing system on medical and medication errors.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective before-and-after study in a teaching hospital by applying a U control chart to monthly error rates that were calculated from the number of both medical and medication errors divided by the number of patient days.

Results: The process mean medical error rate from April 2008 to December 2010 was 0.0213±0.0004 (mean±SD), and consecutive data points after September in 2010 were under the process mean from April 2008 to December 2010. The process mean value from January 2011 to March 2012 was 0.0177±0.0005. A significant difference was seen in the process mean medical error rate between consecutive months before December 2010 and values after January 2011 (p<0.001). From April 2008 to December 2010, the process mean medication error rate was 0.0060±0.0002, and from January 2011 to March 2012, the mean value was 0.0045±0.0002 (p<0.001).

Conclusion: We showed that it requires time to reach a significant reduction in medical and medication error rates after implementation of an electronic prescribing system. It is important to check and support ways to adjust to procedures involved in using a new system.