A prospective study to evaluate awareness about medication errors amongst health-care personnel representing North, East, West Regions of India

BACKGROUND: Medication errors are prevalent in the hospital settings. To ensure the patient safety and provide better health services, medication errors should be curbed. India is still lacking the regulatory system for the control of medication errors. Therefore, a stringent regulatory set up should be established to reduce medication errors. Awareness among the health-care professionals regarding medication errors may be the major factor in the establishment of successful regulatory system. In Indian context, no study has been reported about the awareness of medication errors. Therefore, this study assessed the awareness of the health-care professionals representing North, East and West regions of India about medication errors. These health-care professionals also included the students who were in the final phase of professional courses related to health management. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire comprising of 17 questions pertaining to different aspects of medication errors was prepared. Questionnaire was distributed to 456 health-care professionals of various institutes of North, East and West India. Respondents of the questionnaire were restricted to one sitting for answering the entire questionnaire and they were not allowed to consult with anyone for the purpose of answering the questions. Data was compiled and analyzed. RESULTS: It has been found that 18.45%, 39.48%, 14.16%, 27.9% of respondents were having excellent, good, average, poor knowledge respectively regarding the fundamentals of medication error. Knowledge regarding reporting medication errors was excellent in 56.65%, good in 22.53%, average in 09.23% and poor in 11.59% of respondents. CONCLUSION: The outcome of this study may be of great help in drafting the regulatory policies to curb the problem of medication errors.