Short summary

The growing complexity of medication use in healthcare causes a rising rate of medication errors. A national mandatory reporting system The Danish Patient Safety Database has collected large numbers of data on medication errors. The growing amount of data is challenging and ineffective to analyze, using traditional manual reviewing and arithmetical counting.

This project aims to map the evidence on the methodology of medication error analyses; to develop and test new approaches to analyze large databases to uncover medication errors' patterns and trends.

Rationale

The number of medication errors in healthcare is rising, leading to higher morbidity, mortality, and costs. As a means to address these challenges, the mandatory reporting of adverse events to the Danish Patient Safety Database (DPSD) has been established. Ever since its implementation, total report numbers have increased, with about 56% being related to medication. Large quantities of incidents data are challenging to analyze using traditional methods.

To improve patient safety and healthcare quality, there is a need for developing and testing new methods to analyze and utilize reports.

The aim of this project is to characterize contemporary approaches to medication errors' management, develop and test methods to analyze medication errors in the DPSD, and to uncover medication errors' patterns and trends.

Description of the cohort

This is a register study based on medication-related adverse events data, reported between 2010 and 2018 to the Danish Patient Safety Database.

Reports on the adult population over 18 years of age from all healthcare services are subjects of our interest.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmaceutics, University of Southern Denmark.

• Senior Physician, Professor Jesper Hallas

Research Unit OPEN, Department of Clinical Research

• Senior Physician, Associate Professor, PhD Søren Birkeland
• MSc., Associate Professor, PhD Søren Bie Bogh