Frontiers in Pharmacology (Jun 2019)

How to Prevent or Reduce Prescribing Errors: An Evidence Brief for Policy

  • Bruna Carolina de Araújo,
  • Roberta Crevelário de Melo,
  • Maritsa Carla de Bortoli,
  • José Ruben de Alcântara Bonfim,
  • Tereza Setsuko Toma

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2019.00439
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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- Preventing prescribing errors is critical to improving patient safety.- We developed an evidence brief for policy to identify effective interventions to avoid or reduce prescribing errors.- Four options were raised: promoting educational actions on prudent prescribing directed to prescribers; incorporating computerized alert systems into clinical practice; implementing the use of tools for guiding medication prescribing; and, encouraging patient care by a multidisciplinary team, with the participation of a pharmacist.- These options can be incorporated into health systems either alone or together, and for that, it is necessary that the context be considered.- Aiming to inform decision makers, we included considerations on the implementation of these options regarding upper-middle income countries, like the Brazilian, and we also present considerations regarding equity.

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