Medication errors in hospitalized patients: a systematic review

Objective: to describe the errors of the medication and its associated factors, as well as to evaluate the methodological quality of the available studies. Method: a systematic review of the literature was carried out in the PubMed, Scielo, LILACS, Ebsco databases. Medes, Sietes, Dialnet and Science Direct, considering the bibliographic references found between 2010 and 2020, between the months of May and April 2020 using the search equation Medication Errors and Patients AND Hospitalization and their equivalents in English and Portuguese. The studies were selected through a screening that began with the reading of titles, abstracts and full text, and the methodological quality and risk of bias of the studies were assessed by means of critical reading with the Ciapponi guide. Results: 23 articles were included in the review, 43.4% cross-sectional and 39% prospectives. It was evidenced that medication errors occur in the different stages of the patient care process, being more frequent in the prescription and administration stage. These errors were associated with work overload, the number of medications the patients receive, complex patient illnesses, prolonged hospital stays, intravenous medication, and distraction. Conclusions: medication errors are present in the medication processes, mainly in the prescription and medication phases of medications, associated to a greater extent with work overload, the number of medications and the presence of complex diseases.