Original Paper

Improving the Quality of Medical Prescriptions in Neonatal Units
Carmen R. Pallás^a, Javier De-la-Cruz^{b, c}, M. Teresa Del-Moral^a, David Lora^b, M. Ana Malalana<sup>a

a</sup>Neonatal Unit, and
^bClinical Epidemiology Unit, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, and
^cCIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain

Address of Corresponding Author

Neonatology 2008;93:251-256 (DOI: 10.1159/000111530)

  Key Words

• Prescription, medicine
• Prescribing practice, training
• Neonatal unit

  Abstract

Background: Pediatric units, especially neonatal units, are highly vulnerable to error generally and to medication error in particular. Potential failures are distributed across the entire medication process, occurring mostly at the time of medication prescription and during preparation for drug administration. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of violations of good prescribing practice before and after the implementation of several measures aimed at improving the quality of the medical prescription. Methods: Before and after evaluation study with prospective data collection in a third level neonatal unit. 6,320 handwritten medical prescriptions for neonates admitted in the first study period and 1,435 in the second period were analyzed. Training on good prescribing practice and the implementation of a pocket PC-based automatic dosage calculation system were the interventions. The main outcome measure was the proportion of prescriptions with violations of good prescribing practice: incorrect dose, units, dose interval, route of administration or legibility. Results: Incorrect prescriptions decreased from 39.5% before the intervention to 11.9% after, with an adjusted prevalence ratio of 0.29 (0.25-0.34). The number of wrongly specified items on a single prescription decreased from 11.1% of the prescriptions with two or more wrongly specified items in the first period to 1.3% in the second period, with a prevalence ratio of 0.09 (0.05-0.14). Conclusions: Violations of good prescribing practice are common in neonatal units. A simple intervention should improve the quality of handwritten medical prescriptions for newborns admitted to intensive care settings.

Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Dr. Carmen R. Pallás
Neonatal Unit, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre
Avenida de Córdoba s/n
ES-28041 Madrid (Spain)
Tel./Fax +34 91 390 82 72, E-Mail jakeka1@movistar.net

  Article Information

Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Health Research Fund (FIS PI 020756).

Received: November 30, 2006
Accepted after revision: August 29, 2007
Published online: November 21, 2007
Number of Print Pages : 6
Number of Figures : 0, Number of Tables : 3, Number of References : 12