Exploration into the Reduction of Pharmacy Dispensing Errors

RESEARCH DISSERTATION
-Exploration into the reduction
of pharmacy dispensing errors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Aim & Objectives........................................................................................................................4
Research Questions......................................................................................................................4
Problem and Justification.................................................................................................................4
Background......................................................................................................................................5
Significance..................................................................................................................................6
Dissertation Structure...................................................................................................................6
Gantt Chart...................................................................................................................................8
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................9
Theme 1: Exploring the issue of pharmacy dispensing errors in UK (2)....................................9
Theme 2: Interventions in which pharmacy dispensing errors occur and impact on patients (4)
....................................................................................................................................................12
Theme 3: Mitigation of pharmacy dispensing errors in the hospital settings ...........................15
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................18
Research type.............................................................................................................................18
Research design.........................................................................................................................19
Research approach.....................................................................................................................19
Research philosophy..................................................................................................................20
Data collection...........................................................................................................................20
Data analysis .............................................................................................................................21
Ethical considerations................................................................................................................21
Reliability and validity...............................................................................................................22
Limitations of the study.............................................................................................................22
Study Overview.............................................................................................................................22
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria....................................................................................................23
Timescale.......................................................................................................................................24
Outcomes.......................................................................................................................................25
Intervention....................................................................................................................................27
Better interventions and ways of reducing pharmacy dispensing errors...................................27

Data extract....................................................................................................................................29
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................32
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................33

Topic: To explore into the reduction of pharmacy dispensing errors while treating the patients
of UK.
INTRODUCTION
Aim & Objectives
Aim: To explore the ways in which pharmacy dispensing errors can be reduced by the
pharmacists of UK.
Objectives
 To analyse the problem of pharmacy dispensing errors in the hospitals of UK.
 To evaluate the interventions in which pharmacy dispensing errors can occur and their
effects on the patients.
 To reduce and control the pharmacy dispensing errors in the hospital settings of UK.
 To examine the outcomes which can be achieved by reducing and controlling the errors
of pharmacy dispensing?
Research Questions
 How the pharmacy dispensing errors became the major problem in the hospitals of UK?
 What are the interventions in which the pharmacy dispensing errors can occur and what is
its effects on the patients?
 How can the issue of pharmacy dispensing errors can be reduced or controlled in the UK
hospital settings?
 What are the outcomes after reducing and controlling the pharmacy dispensing errors?
Problem and Justification
The pharmacy dispensing errors are becoming the leading cause of mortality as it is 21%
of all the medication errors. This started increasing the burden on society by adding the costs of
the healthcare. This also results in litigation which can prove to be expensive which can also
result in enhanced costs for the coverage of professional liability insurance (Shawahna and et.al.,
2016). This becomes traumatic for both the patient as well as pharmacist therefore the hospitals
realizes the need to reduce the number of dispensing errors which also became the goals of every
pharmacy. This was also observed that only two-thirds of the total dispensing errors reach the
4

patient actually and actual harm is caused by only few (Abdel-Qader and et.al., 2020). But these
must be reduced as prevention is better than cure. The pharmacies in UK realizes the need to
minimize these errors by developing and implementing various strategies. They need to know the
various methods in which they can reduce the effect of this issue. The in-patient pharmacies of
UK are facing more dispensing errors as compared to the out-patient pharmacy. These included
the drug omission, wrong drugs, wrong strength of drugs, wrong dosage form of drugs, wrong
quantity of drugs and many more. Therefore, the research will be based on reducing these errors
in order to increase the effectiveness of the treatment given by the pharmacists (Shawahna and
et.al., 2016). Also, the most of the pharmacies realized that the most important factor which
contributed in the increasing number of dispensing errors is the insufficient number of
pharmacists. Therefore, they also identify the need for the sufficient number of pharmacists to be
posted during the peak hours especially at the filling section along with minimizing the
dispensing errors in the in-patient pharmacy.
Background
The pharmacy dispensing error is basically a discrepancy between the prescription and
the medicine which is delivered by the pharmacist to the patient or in distributing to the ward in
terms of prescription which can include the dispensing of medicine with the informational
quality or inferior pharmaceutical. These errors include the medicines with similar names,
incorrect picking of medicines, medicines with similar packaging, dispensing out-of-date
medicine, transpose of label or labelling the medicine incorrectly, not dispensing against the
prescription, incorrect labelling etc. (Kenawy and Kett, 2019). The report is therefore an attempt
to explore the reduction of the dispensing errors in the pharmacies of UK so that the patients can
get the treatments correctly and can be able to gain the best outcomes after the treatment. The
PICO framework can be used to reduce some of the problems by identifying the problem which
is the dispensing error, the intervention such as medication, exercise etc., controlling of the
dispensing errors and the outcomes which can be gained by reducing the errors such as improved
quality of life, clinical well-being etc. The targeted audience is the people of UK who undergoes
treatment because of facing any sort of disease (Aldhwaihi and et.al., 2016). Therefore, the
problem of dispensing errors in the pharmacies of UK will be elaborated along with highlighting
the ways in which these errors occur. The research will also shed light on the ways in which
5

these pharmacy dispensing errors can be controlled and reduced. The outcomes will be
highlighted after reducing and controlling the pharmacy dispensing errors which can be in the
form of enhanced quality of life along with the safety and good health of people.
Significance
This will prove to be significant for the pharmacies of UK as they will be able to reduce
the dispensing errors. The pharmacists will be gaining many opportunities to develop and
implement the strategies which can help in reducing the dispensing errors happening in the
pharmacies of UK. The people who support the pharmacies and are involved in them are also
benefitted by this as it creates trust and loyalty towards the pharmacists and they invest more and
more for the healthcare services. This also helps the other researchers who wish to study
regarding the pharmacy dispensing errors. The research will especially benefit the patients as
they will get the benefits of reducing the dispensing errors in the UK pharmacies. It will give
various opportunities to the readers who go through the research as it will help them to be aware
about the various methods through which dispensing errors can be reduced or controlled
(Ibrahim, 2020).
Dissertation Structure
This is basically the outline of the dissertation which helps in knowing about the structure
of the dissertation. This research will consist of the following major points which will help in
achieving the objectives of the research i.e., to explore the ways for reducing the pharmacy
dispensing errors in the pharmacies of UK along with answering the research questions which
were made by considering the PICO framework.
Introduction
This basically includes the background which is basically the crux of the dissertation
which helps the reader to know about the research that what actually it is made for and its
purpose. The rationale is made to describe the reason to do the research along with the
significance which focusses on those who can be facilitated and benefitted by the research. The
research aims and objectives are developed to gain deeper insight about the topic of the research
and its goals.
6

Literature review
This helps in presenting the data which is collected from the already published books,
journals, articles, research papers, blogs, websites and many other secondary sources to gain
information. The critical evaluation of the view points and opinions of the various researchers is
done.
Data collection
In this section, data is collected from various sources to gain deeper insights about the
topic and also to get the views and opinions of the individuals through primary as well as
secondary sources.
Data analysis
This section focusses on analysing the data collected through various sources. This helps
in drawing significant conclusions as well as optimal outcomes.
Data findings
In this section, the outcomes are analysed which helps to further draw the conclusions
and recommendations along with ensuring that the research objectives are achieved.
Conclusion
This is basically the summary of the research and the concluding part of the dissertation
which helps in developing the recommendations and to ensure that the research questions are
well answered or not.
7

Gantt Chart
8