TITLE:
Study of Factors Affecting Medical Incident: 3. Medicine Inspection
AUTHORS:
Yuka Miyachi, Chika Nakayama, Takashi Horiba, Tomoaki Hino, Kazuyo Nagashiba, Miki Kato, Masafumi Ohnishi, Hiroko Saito, Masato Isogai, Nami Sugiura, Keiko Matsuura, Taeyuki Oshima
KEYWORDS:
Medicine Inspection, Dispensing Error, Eye Tracking, Pharmacist
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
14,
2020
ABSTRACT: It is the responsibility of pharmacists
to ensure the safety of patients as pharmacist’s professional duties expand
into diverse directions. In recent years, the use of automated dispensing systems
has increased; however, the inspection by pharmacists is the most important step
in the prevention of medical errors. Comparing the inspection of hospital and community
pharmacists may lead to an increased awareness of incident countermeasures. Therefore,
eye tracking was performed for hospital and community pharmacists who conduct inspection,
and the results revealed the factors that affect dispensing errors. One of the factors
was the size of the dispensing space, especially if the space was small and the
items needed were not easily accessible. In addition, differences in the inspection
procedures among pharmacists were presumed to lead to possible dispensing errors
due to oversights. Moreover, it was suggested that any subsequent work would flow more smoothly if a pharmacist checked the
prescription and medication history management records at the beginning. Furthermore,
it was thought that keeping a history of checks, such as recording any prescription
checks in writing, would speed up finding the cause in the unlikely event that a
dispensing error occurred. Accordingly, creating an environment in which one can
concentrate without distractions during the inspections can lead to the prevention
of dispensing error.