Analysis of medication error in 80 healthcare institutions in the French northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Summary Objective The primary analysis had for its main purpose the description and characterization of 1871 medication errors reported by voluntary healthcare institutions to the Nord-Pas-de- CalaisOMEDIT between 2010 and 2012. Methodology Medication errors were characterized, and the contributory or influential factors were ranked by using the new taxonomy from the Review of Errors in MEDication » (REMED V2 process) offered by the French Society of Clinical Pharmacy. Results Among 80 voluntary healthcare institutions, 65 reported 1856 out of 1871 medication errors. Overall, 2507 drugs were involved, and 6 groups of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system represented more than 90% of the medication errors. The errors of dose and medicine accounted for 72% in the cumulative frequency of drug errors reported. The prescription (39%) and administration (33%) were the two main initial stages of drug error occurrences in the medication use process. Medicines, practices and procedures, and healthcare professional areas might be the most involved in the diagnosis of contributory or influential factors associated with declared medication errors. Conclusion Even though the safety cultureis being developed within healthcare institutions of the area, the objective in 2013 was to achieve an expansion of the number of healthcare institutions reporting as well as to increase the number of declarations used as returns of experience.