Identification of risks and practices in the use of high alert medications in a university hospital

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the prescriptions of high alert medications and to identify the practices adopted in the dispensing in a high complexity public university hospital, proposing strategies to prevent adverse events. Methods: a cross-sectional study carried out with 566 prescriptions, in three shifts, from April to December 2016. The identification of practices for dispensing was by direct observation with the application of a checklist based on the protocol of the Ministry of Health (MH)/National Health Surveillance Agency(ANVISA) (Ministério da Saúde/ Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária). A non-parametric chi-square test of independence was used to assess the association between prescriptions with and without high alert medications and inpatient units. Results: more than half of the prescriptions (56.6%) contained two or more high alert medications and almost all were injectable (95.4%), mainly opioid analgesics (31.2%), glucose 50% (24.7%), and NPH and regular insulin (24.3%). The prescription rate corresponded to 18.2%. The main practices that represented risks were the following: collective distribution of potassium chloride and insulin; lack of warning labels; non-existent double check; presence of interruption/ distraction sources in 43.9% of the prescriptions met. Conclusion: despite being frequent in more than half of the prescriptions, the practices adopted in the dispensing of high alert medications were insufficient for a safe dispensing, which could compromise the administration of these drugs and cause harm to the patients. It is important to implement the MH/ANVISA protocol for preventing medication errors, in consonance with the third global challenge of the World Health Organization (WHO).