Noncompliance pattern due to medication errors at a Teaching Hospital in Srikot, India

OBJECTIVE: To study the medication errors leading to noncompliance in a tertiary care teaching hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of a teaching institution from Srikot, Garhwal, Uttarakhand to analyze the medication errors in 500 indoor prescriptions from medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and ENT departments over five months and 100 outdoor patients of medicine department. RESULTS: Medication error rate for indoor patients was found to be 22.4 % and 11.4% for outdoor patients as against the standard acceptable error rate 3%. Maximum errors were observed in the indoor prescriptions of the surgery department accounting for 44 errors followed by medicine 32 and gynecology 25 in the 500 cases studied leading to faulty administration of medicines. CONCLUSION: Many medication errors were noted which go against the practice of rational therapeutics. Such studies can be directed to usher in the rational use of medicines for increasing compliance and therapeutic benefits.