Search

BACKGROUND: Multiple studies have investigated medication errors in hospitals in Saudi Arabia; however, prevalence data on prescribing errors and associated factors remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE: Assess the prevalence, type, severity, and factors associated with prescribing errors. DESIGN: Retrospective database review. SETTING: Large tertiary care setting in Riyadh. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We described and analyzed data related to prescribing errors in adults (>14 years of age) from the Medication Error Electronic Report Forms database for the two-year period from January 2017 to December 2018. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The prevalence of prescribing errors and associated factors among adult patients. SAMPLE SIZE: 315 166 prescriptions screened. RESULTS: Of the total number of inpatient and outpatient prescriptions screened, 4934 prescribing errors were identified for a prevalence of 1.56%. The most prevalent types of prescribing errors were improper dose (n=1516; 30.7%) and frequency (n=987; 20.0%). Two-thirds of prescribing errors did not cause any harm to patients. Most prescribing errors were made by medical residents (n=2577; 52%) followed by specialists (n=1629; 33%). Prescribing errors were associated with a lack of documenting clinical information (adjusted odds ratio: 14.1; 95% CI 7.7-16.8, P P CONCLUSION: Inadequate documentation in electronic health records and prescribing of anti-infective medications were the most common factors for predicting prescribing errors. Future studies should focus on testing innovative measures to control these factors and their impact on minimizing prescribing errors. LIMITATIONS: Polypharmacy was not considered; the data are from a single healthcare system. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.

The loss of patentability of many originator biologics has led to the rapid introduction of biosimilar agents. The anticipated economic benefit of introducing such agent has been accompanied by vagueness surrounding their biotechnology, approval requirements, positioning in treatment paradigms and potential for adverse events. The Second Symposium on Biologics and Biosimilars “Beyond Clinical Practice” was held on 24th-26th January 2020 aiming at improving the understanding of these new agents in a diverse interactive conference and to guide stakeholders how to introduce biosimilars into clinical practice. The symposium consisted of 4 tracks and 3 workshops. A total of 217 participants attended the meeting. The majority were pharmacists (78.8%) followed by physicians (18.9%) and other healthcare providers (2.3%). The workshops covered the following topics: basics of pharmacoeconomics, pharmacovigilance and patients’ perspective toward biosimilar biologics. While, the 4 main tracks included: Introduction to biosimilars, challenges in clinical practice, regulatory and pharmacoeconomic aspects and Challenges in biosimilar pharmacovigilance.