Impact of drug information services on patient safety at east jeddah hospital in Saudi Arabia; a retrospective study

One of the actions that used by drug information center to improve the quality outcomes of patient safety at East Jeddah hospital was sharing the Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library on each desktop inside the hospital. Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library is an updated electronic library consisting of textbooks, national and international journals, frequently asked questions and other electronic databases such as UpToDate, Lexicomp and Micromedex. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of the Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library as an implemented quality improvement tool on the incidence of medication errors which in turn affect the patient safety and overall healthcare outcomes. Medication errors data was derived from the electronic reporting and recording system (called weqayah). The retrospective analysis of medication errors carried out from July to December 2018. The incidences of medication errors were compared three months before sharing the Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library in the EJH and three months thereafter. The secondary data was represented by the development of a questionnaire to ensure or exclude the contribution of Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library as a quality improvement tool on the patient safety. The analysis of extracted records was result in 22% reduction of medication errors post introduction of Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library. The comparison of the effectiveness of Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library implementation between the pre-and post-medication errors events showed a decline in the average number of medication errors but did not reach statistical sig­nificance (p>0.05). Therefore, Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Library might be improves patient safety and healthcare outcomes.