OBJECTIVES: Medication Errors (MEs) may occur at any stage of medication utilization process which can lead to undesirable health consequences. Medication errors in community pharmacies have serious consequences for patients, and certain populations may be at increased risk for harm, such as chronically ill and elderly patients with comorbidities and Poly Pharmacy. Hence, we aimed to establish and inculcate the culture of medication error reporting system (MERS) among community pharmacist and assess and minimize the nature and extent of MEs .

METHODS: A Prospective Observational study conducted in private community pharmacies In our southern Indian province Prescriptions of study participants were reviewed on a daily basis, the identified MEs were documented in the suitable documentation form and also data base for easy retrieval of data.

RESULTS: Out of 868, 514 study participants were enrolled during study. A total of 1416 medication errors were identified in 514 enrolled study participants. Errors were found to be more, were prescription errors [1242 (87.71%)] and procurement errors. [157 (11.08%)]. The personnel involved in error were Physicians [493 (78.01%)] and patients [79 (12.50%)]. The major therapeutic classes that were implicated in MEs, belongs to analgesics / antipyretics (39.94%) followed by antibiotics (20.74%), and antihistamines accounting for 16.32% were majorly involved in MEs [705 (49.78%)] and the potential causation that lead to error was regular practice among physician [513 (73.81%)] and peak hours workload among pharmacist [60 (8.63%)]. The MEs outcome categorization is according National National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP), In this study, majority of errors were category C 88.14% (1248), followed by, category A 11.09% (157) and category D 0.78% (11).

CONCLUSIONS: The reporting system was inculcated in the community settings in order to monitor and prevent the MEs. The study finding indicated that medication errors. occur in all levels of drug treatment.