Reducing Prescribing Errors by Supporting Prescription of Injection Routes for Injectable Medications Using Electronic Order Entry System: A Repeated Cross-sectional Study

Delivery of injectable medications in hospitals is a complex process posing systemic risks of errors. For example, administering an injectable medication through an inappropriate route could lead to serious consequences for the patient. Therefore, we conducted a repeated cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between efforts to use an electronic system to support prescribing decisions regarding injection routes and reductions in prescribing errors. Specifically, we changed the settings of the computerized physician order entry system to prevent unintentional selection of an inappropriate injection route. Prescription information for nine injectable medications for which injection route-related prescribing errors had been identified during prescription review by pharmacists was extracted from the electronic medical record system. For each of the nine drugs compared before and after the same period, no prescribing errors related to the injection route occurred during the post-intervention period. In particular, the number of prescribing errors for PROCAINE HYDROCHLORIDE Injection 1％ significantly decreased from 11 errors in the pre-intervention period (P < 0.01). For injectable medications, which have a complex delivery process, adding electronic system support to prescription reviews by pharmacists can reduce prescribing errors and contribute to medical safety and patient safety.