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‘Prescription Errors Caused 1,600 Deaths’

DUBAI - As many as 1,600 deaths per year may have occurred in UAE clinics due to prescription errors, a study has shown.

The study, which also pointed to 22,000 serious adverse drug events as a result of prescription errors in primary healthcare centres, points to an urgent need for an e-prescription system, which is in the process of being implemented public hospitals and clinics in the UAE.

The author, Dr Rafiq RA Abou-Shaaban of Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Ajman University of Science and Technology, released the details of the study at the Dubai International Pharmaceuticals & Technologies Conference & Exhibition (DUPHAT) 2009 this week. The figures were extrapolated from 2005 data where 23,886 patients were examined. The survey estimated an average cost of a prescription in the UAE to be about Dh150 and the loss due to errors in dispensing 1,000 prescriptions per day for one year could be around Dh44 million.

“If we further extrapolate these data for the current situations and estimate the expenses for establishing proper IT solution to provide 300 clinics and 1000 pharmacies with customised drug database, medical decision support system and medical alert system, I think we just need Dhs9million to solve 50 per cent of prescription errors in PHCs,” Dr Abou-Shaaban told Khaleej Times after presenting his paper on ‘Pharmaco-economics of Therapeutic Managements in Primary Health Care: Cost EffectiveAnalysis’.

The study also showed that 47 per cent of the prescriptions analysed had resulted in duplication of drugs.

“This error is due to prescribing different trade name with either same therapeutic class or same generic names. About 0.85 percent of the prescription errors can be fatal. Serious adverse drug events like incorrect drugs or doses that might lead to hospitalisation in ICU and normal wards are about 6.26 per cent.” So far, no health body has come up with a study on mortality rates linked to prescription errors.

The only data available is from a ’97 study in Al Ain PHCs which had discovered 80 per cent of antibiotic prescriptions from Al Ain PHCs were wrongly written. “The study also found out that a few fatalities had also occurred due to over-prescription of antibiotics, especially in cases concerning upper respiratory tract infections,” Dr Ahmed Hussain Al Zarouni, Director of Medical Licensing Department at MoH had told Khaleej Times in February when the MoH announced its plan to launch e-prescriptions within six months.

Health authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are already in the process of completing the e-prescription system and online database of medicines.

In the absence of IT solutions, Dr. Abou-Shaaban said, doctors treat patients based memory or experience and not based on interactive information between drugs, and patient medical records. Apart from system barriers, patient awareness is lacking because no directive information is given to him to assess his compliance.

Dr Ali Al Sayed Hussain, Director of Pharmaceutical Services with the Department of Health and Medical Services in Dubai had recently told Khaleej Times that the e-prescription system launched in 2007 had helped in reducing medication errors in Dohms facilities by 50 per cent so far.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com