Background:

There is a great potential risk of errors in the emergency services and the studies carried out present heterogeneous results and methodology. The aim was to calculate the prevalence and characteristics, types and consequences for the patient, of medications administration errors in patients who attended the emergency department (ED) of a tertiary hospital, and to propose improvement strategies to prevent them.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study of direct observation in the emergency areas of internal medicine and observation of adult patients was conducted in September 2016. Data collection was conducted by 4, nursing professional’s observers from the ED. Medication errors reported by professionals to the hospital’s voluntary reporting system were also analysed.

Results:

The number of medication administration errors observed was 150 (19%) versus the number of medication administration errors reported to the hospital’s notification system, which was 14, from 2013 to 2016. The most frequent type of error was incorrect administration rate (67%), followed by preparation errors (16%) and incorrect time administration (14%). The medications that accumulated the most errors were furosemide and methylprednisolone. None of the errors involved damage to the patient. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the results of the study.

Conclusions:

The prevalence of medication administration errors in the ED is high. Knowing about them is effective to undertake specific improvement actions that may influence prevention, increasing patient safety.

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