Knowledge, attitudes and practices of clinical pharmacists to medication error reporting in ministry of health and population hospitals in Egypt

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices toward medication errors (MEs) reporting among pharmacists working in Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) hospitals in Alexandria. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among all pharmacists who are responsible for reporting medication errors in the Egyptian online reporting system (NO HARMe). Results The majority of pharmacists received training on MEs reporting using the Egyptian online reporting system. Around half of the pharmacists knew the correct definition for medication errors. All respondents were aware of the presence of a MEs reporting system in Egypt. Clinical pharmacists’ attitudes towards MEs reporting was favorable with an overall mean score of 4.20 ± 0.73 in a score ranging from 1 (most unfavorable attitudes score) to 5 (most favorable score). Only 60.7% of the surveyed pharmacists used the system to report MEs. Antibiotics were the most frequent drug category reported and the prescribing stage was the stage in which pharmacists perceived the greatest volume of reports were made (89.3% and 71.4%, respectively). Lack of time was the most frequently identified barrier to reporting, followed by lack of feedback to the report submitted (73.2%, 54.5%, respectively). Inconsistent with the results of other studies, fear from legal consequences and being recognized as an incompetent provider was reported by only 12.5% and 11.6% of pharmacists, respectively. Conclusion The majority of pharmacists have good knowledge and favorable attitudes towards medication error reporting, however around two fifths do not report medication errors.