Medication error and associated factors among adults admitted to emergency ward at the university of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, North-West Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study, 2022

BACKGROUND: Medication errors are the most common cause of preventable adverse drug events at the emergency ward. OBJECTIVES: This study assessed medication errors and associated factors among adult patients admitted to the emergency ward at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, North-West Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 1, 2022, to August 30, 2022. Data were entered into EpiData Manager 4.6.0.0 for clearing and exported to SPSS version 24 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, medians with an interquartile range and inferential statistics like binary logistic regression were used for data analysis. The level of significance was declared at a p value less than 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: From 422 study participants, medication errors were found in three-fourths (74.4%) of study participants. The most frequent type of medication error was omitted dose (26.27%). From a total of 491 medication errors, 97.75% were not prevented before reaching patients. More than one-third (38.9%) of medication errors had potentially moderate harmful outcomes. More than half (55.15%) of possible causes of medication errors committed by staff are due to behavioral factors. Physicians accepted 99.16% and nurses accepted 98.71% of clinical pharmacist intervention. Hospital stay ≥ 6 days (AOR: 3.00 95% CI 1.65–5.45, p < 0.001), polypharmacy (AOR: 5.47, 95% CI 2.77–10.81 p < 0.001), and Charlson comorbidity index ≥ 3 (AOR: 1.94, 95% CI (1.02–3.68), p < 0.04) significantly associated with medication error. CONCLUSIONS: About three-fourths of adult patients admitted to the emergency ward experienced medication errors. A considerable amount of medication errors were potentially moderately harmful. Most medication errors were due to behavioral factors. Most clinical pharmacists’ interventions were accepted by physicians and nurses. Patients who stayed longer at the emergency ward, had a Charlson comorbidity index value of ≥ 3, and were on polypharmacy were at high risk of medication error. The hospital should strive to reduce medication errors at the emergency ward.