EVALUATION OF DISPENSING ERRORS IN SHEGAR OROMIYA, ETHIOPIA: FREQUENCY, KIND, AND CAUSES

Introduction: The goal of dispensing is to guarantee that the appropriatemedication is administered to the appropriate patient in the appropriatedosage, the appropriate form, with the appropriate instructions, and in acontainer that preserves the medication's efficacy. The amount of data fromShegar Oromiya Primary hospitals in Ethiopia, however, is insufficient todetermine the magnitude of dispensing error and its cause. Objective:Determine the various types of dispensing errors, their causes, and theiroccurrence in the pharmacy at Primary hospitals in Shegar Oromiya Ethiopiato enable taking the necessary measures. Method: From March to June 2022,a cross-sectional prospective study in the OPD pharmacy at Primary hospitalsin Shegar Oromiya Ethiopia was carried out using a systematic observationalcheck list. (EPH). To further look into the potential causes of the dispensingerror, extensive interviews with the hospital's pharmacists and druggist werealso done. Result: In this study, 384 patient prescriptions were examined, andthe dispensing errors that were discovered were divided into four groups:errors in patient identification, content, labeling, and teaching or counseling ofpatients. In total, 384 prescriptions were written; of these, 27.9% were missingthe patient's name, 59.9% were missing their age, and 59.9% were writtenwithout the patient's sex having been verified beforehand. Among the 733medications prescribed, only 7.3% contained labels including the drug name,patient name, patient's age, sex, and usage instructions. There are no warningsor expiration dates on the labels of any pharmaceuticals. 11.5% of folks arealso familiar with drug storage locations. No one among the 384 patientstested knew how to manage any of the drugs' negative effects. Conclusion:This study revealed four primary categories of dispensing errors in EPH:patient identification, substance, labeling, and counseling problems. Labelingand patient identification receive the highest percentages, but content errorand counseling error receive the lowest percentages. The pharmacist/druggisthas identified a number of factors that contribute to dispensing errors, such asheavy patient workloads, illegible handwriting, unfavorable dispensingconditions, a lack of hospital pharmacy work flow systems, and others.