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A systematic review of approaches for calculating the cost of medication errors

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journal contribution
posted on 2016-10-28, 10:47 authored by Krishan Patel, Robert Jay, Muhammad W. Shahzad, William Green, Rakesh Patel
Introduction: Although medication errors may cause significant morbidity and mortality, the true cost of avoidable harm from such errors is unclear. While studies describe different methods for calculating a financial cost from an error, there remains variability in the way calculations are conducted depending on the clinical context. This review aimed to investigate the range of approaches for calculating medication error costs across healthcare settings. Methods: A systematic review was carried out with a duplicate data extraction approach and mixed methods data synthesis. Medline, Embase and Web of Science were searched for studies published between 1993 and 2015. Studies that explicitly described a method for calculating medication error cost were included. The variables used for the calculations and a description of the approach for calculating errors were reported. Results: 21 studies were included in the final review. There was wide variation in the way calculations were undertaken, with some calculations using a single variable only and others using several variables in a multistep approach. Few calculations included indirect costs, such as loss of earnings for the patient, and only one calculation considered opportunity cost. The majority of studies presented direct medication error costs whereas others approximated error costs from the savings made following an intervention. Conclusions: There are a wide range of methods used for calculating the cost of medication errors. The diversity arises from the number of variables used in calculations, the perspective from which the calculation is conducted from, and the degree of economic rigour applied by researchers.

History

Citation

European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 2016, 23 (5), pp. 294-301

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND PSYCHOLOGY/School of Medicine/Department of Medical Education

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group for European Association of Hospital Pharmacists

issn

2047-9956

eissn

2047-9964

Acceptance date

2016-05-10

Copyright date

2016

Available date

2016-10-28

Publisher version

http://ejhp.bmj.com/content/23/5/294

Language

en