ABSTRACT Objective: To estimate chances of potential look-alike, sound-alike and read-alike (LASARA) errors in secondary-care hospital pharmacies through prescriptions screening.
Design: Cross-sectional, prospective study.
Place and duration of study: Al-Khidmat Hospital Pharmacy, Karachi, Pakistan from August to October, 2016.
Methodology: Dispensed medicine data was collected from three pharmacies of a secondary-care hospital in Karachi over three months. Only inpatient and outpatient prescriptions issued by the hospital were included. All outside referrals (OSRs) prescriptions without hospital stamp were excluded. LASARA medicines list, available at hospital, was considered to compare five-paired drugs, dispensed to patients; and screening alerts against these paired medicines were noted.
Results: Out of 1,000 monitored prescriptions, 200 prescriptions were shortlisted for 22 considered medicines. Total of 38 LASARA errors were reported in 90 days. Overall LASARA results were 38, 19% errors per 200 prescriptions. Highest dispensed error frequency was observed for injection™ lasix (14 errors, 36.8%), followed by tab. thyroxin (4 errors, 10.5%), injection avil™ (3 errors, 7.8%), Injection Calcium Gluconate (2 errors, 5.2%), and Tablet Lanoxin™ (2 errors, 5.2%).
Conclusion: LASARA errors during medicine dispensing on prescription at hospital pharmacies can be used as a tool to improve patient safety and pharmacist efficacy. Key Words: Errors, Look Alike, Read Alike, Sound Alike, Dispensing, Drugs.