Medication errors in a public hospital in Brazil.

This article describes the analysis of the frequency, type and risk factors relating to errors in the preparation and administration of medications in patients admitted to a public hospital in Brasilia Federal District, Brazil, which serves a population of approximately 500,000 inhabitants. Patients are commonly affected and harmed by medication errors, almost half of which are preventable. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and exploratory study conducted in a clinical medicine unit. Direct observations were made by eight nurse technicians. The type of error, the type of drug involved and associated risk factors were analysed. Relationships between the occurrence of errors and risk factors were studied with logistic regression models. Of the 484 observed doses, 69.5% errors occurred during drug administration, 69.6% during the preparation stage, 48.6% were timing errors, 1.7% were dose-related errors and 9.5% were errors of omission. More than one error was detected in 34.5% of occasions. Unlabelled drugs increased the risk of timing errors by a factor of 13.72. Interruptions in preparation increased the risk of errors by a factor of 3.75. Caring for a larger number of patients (8-9) increased the risk of timing errors by a factor of 8.27. The research shows the need to manage the risk of medication errors in their real-life contexts by interposing safety barriers between the hazards and potential errors.

Acesso e aquisição de medicamentos em instituição de longa permanência para idosos no Brasil / Accessibility and acquisition of medicines in a long-stay institution for theelderly in Brazil

Objetivos: Descrever as estratégias de acesso a medicamentos e os custos com sua aquisição,em uma instituição de longa permanência para idosos brasileira.Métodos: Foi realizada uma entrevista semiestruturada para investigar que meios foram utilizados pela instituição para adquirir os medicamentos prescritos para os idosos. O valor despendido para aquisição em farmácias comerciais foi comparado ao que poderia ter sido gasto caso os medicamentos fossem obtidos acessando estratégias viáveis disponibilizadas pelo setor público de saúde, no mesmo período de tempo.Resultados: Foram comprados pela instituição 107 diferentes tipos de medicamentos, entre os quais, 22 (20,6%) poderiam ter sido acessados por meio do setor público de saúde, o que corresponderia a uma economia de R$ 7.721,52 no período compreendido pelo estudo. Foram identificadas barreiras burocráticas para o cadastramento dos idosos nas unidades básicas de saúde, que impossibilitavam o acesso gratuito aos medicamentos essenciais.Conclusões: A dificuldade de acesso aos medicamentos através de estratégias disponibilizadas pelo setor público de saúde para distribuição dos mesmos implicou maiores gastos para a instituição de idosos. Estes dados podem auxiliar gestores a identificar gastos evitáveis e conhecer melhor as possibilidades de acesso aos medicamentos, assim como levar a uma reflexão acerca da existência de uma possível dissociação entre as políticas públicas de acesso aos medicamentos e as instituições de longa permanência para idosos no Brasil.

Aims: To describe the strategies of access to medicines and the cost of its acquisition in a long-stay institution for the elderly in Brazil.Methods: A semi-structured interview was performed to investigate what means were used by the institution to purchase prescription drugs for the elderly. The amount spent for purchase in drugstores was compared to what could have been spent if the drugs were obtained by accessing viable strategies provided by the public health sector in the same period of time.Results: During the study period, 107 different types of medicines were purchased by the institution, among which 22 (20.6%) could have been accessed through the public health sector, which equates to a savings of R$7,721.52. Bureaucratic barriers to enrollment of elderly in basic health units were identified, which prevented free access to essential medicines.Conclusions: The difficulty of access medicines through strategies offered by the public health sector for its distribution meant higher costs for the elderly institution. These data can help managers to identify avoidable expenses and to better understand the possibilities of access to medicines, as well as lead to a reflection on the existence of a possible dissociation between public policies on access to medicines and long-stay institutions for elderly in Brazil.

Cost of antimicrobial treatment of patients infected with multidrug-resistant organisms in the Intensive Care Unit.

This study aims to compare the costs of antimicrobial drugs used in the treatment of patients infected with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) or those not infected with this type of organisms in an intensive care unit (ICU). It is a retrospective comparative case-control study, performed in a public hospital in the capital city of Brazil, comprising the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. Information on age, sex, length of hospitalization, clinical outcome, antimicrobial drugs, microorganisms and microbial sensitivity to antibiotics was collected. Spearman and Mann-Whitney tests were used for statistical analysis. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. The sample consisted of 401 patients with a mean age of 51.36 years (± 19.68) being 226 (56.4%) male. As for the length of stay, 32.9% of the patients remained more than 20 days, with 195 discharged and 206 deaths. Global cost of antimicrobial treatment was US$ 1113 221.55 during the three year period. Treatment cost for patients with MDRO was higher than for those without (p = 0.010). At least one MDR strain was isolated in 54.6% of the patients. According to these results, nosocomial infections due to MDRO and the high costs involved may endanger the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy in ICU and Health Centers.