Patientenindividuelle Verblisterung im Pflegeheim reduziert Fehlerhäufigkeit

The present study compares external with internal preparation of medicines for residents in inpatient care facilities. The aim of the study is to quantitatively evaluate the frequency of errors and to determine the types of errors.

Six inpatient care facilities were studied where either the medicines were provided internally or by the pharmacy or a blister centre. Data collection took place in the period from February to the end of July 2022. Analysis was done using cross-tabulation and chi-square as well as odds ratio and relative risk.

A total of 471 preparations and 29,216 individual medications were counted and controlled. 35 preparations or 7.4% showed mistakes over all facilities. The result shows a highly significant reduction in the frequency of errors in the preparation outside of the care facilities. The Pearson chi-square gave a value of 38.982 for the frequency of errors in setting procedures and can be classified as highly significant with < 0.001. The odds ratio indicates a 12.043-fold risk of an incorrectly placed medication in internally preparing facilities compared to external delivery.

The correlation between error frequencies and internal preparation is only slightly positive. This can be explained mainly by the overall low frequency of errors. It is remarkable that preparation by the pharmacists outside the nursing home alone, in an identical procedure lowers the error frequency significantly. This alone could speak in favour of outsourcing these activities.