Brazilian Nursing Communication Symposium
SIBRACEN

Abstract

Gimenes Fernanda Raphael Escobar, Freire Claudia Câmara, Cassiani Sílvia Helena De Bortoli. Electronic medical prescriptions at a university hospital: a communication vehicle between doctors and nursing teams. In: Proceedings of the 8. Brazilian Nursing Communication Symposium [Proceedings online]; 2002  May 02-03; São Paulo, SP, Brazil. 2002 [cited 2024 Apr 18]. Available from: URL: http://www.proceedings.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=MSC0000000052002000200017&lng=en&nrm=van .

It is well known that prescriptions play a very important role in the prevention of medication errors and, nowadays, we know that such errors may result from ambiguous, illegible or incomplete prescriptions, occasioning serious damage to the patients. This study aims to identify and analyze the factors that cause medication errors related to electronic medical prescriptions at a University Hospital in the interior of São Paulo. During one month, all electronic prescriptions from the Medical and Orthopedic clinics were analyzed. Quantitative results were shown in graphics and tables. Among 925 prescriptions analyzed in both clinics, 80% contained information that was unclear for professionals, 45.3% contained hand written medication and 22.4% included erasures. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to various factors that can contribute to medication errors, trying to minimize them and, consequently, reducing patient risks.

Keywords : electronic prescription; communication.