Study of Factors Affecting Medical Incident: 3. Medicine Inspection

It is the responsibility of pharmacists to ensure the safety of patients as pharmacist’s professional duties expand into diverse directions. In recent years, the use of automated dispensing systems has increased; however, the inspection by pharmacists is the most important step in the prevention of medical errors. Comparing the inspection of hospital and community pharmacists may lead to an increased awareness of incident countermeasures. Therefore, eye tracking was performed for hospital and community pharmacists who conduct inspection, and the results revealed the factors that affect dispensing errors. One of the factors was the size of the dispensing space, especially if the space was small and the items needed were not easily accessible. In addition, differences in the inspection procedures among pharmacists were presumed to lead to possible dispensing errors due to oversights. Moreover, it was suggested that any subsequent work would flow more smoothly if a pharmacist checked the prescription and medication history management records at the beginning. Furthermore, it was thought that keeping a history of checks, such as recording any prescription checks in writing, would speed up finding the cause in the unlikely event that a dispensing error occurred. Accordingly, creating an environment in which one can concentrate without distractions during the inspections can lead to the prevention of dispensing error.