Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics
Introduction It is widely acknowledged that health disparities exist in minority populations, with ethnicity, gender, language, ability and culture emerging as critical determinants of health outcomes. At present, research is available demonstrating that patients with protected characteristics exper...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2025-04-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open Quality |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/14/2/e003175.full |
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| author | Raliat Onatade Suki Bassi Oscar Jakubiel Smith |
| author_facet | Raliat Onatade Suki Bassi Oscar Jakubiel Smith |
| author_sort | Raliat Onatade |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction It is widely acknowledged that health disparities exist in minority populations, with ethnicity, gender, language, ability and culture emerging as critical determinants of health outcomes. At present, research is available demonstrating that patients with protected characteristics experience less favourable patient safety outcomes. However, there has been limited focus on reviewing how processes within the healthcare system contribute to this inequity of care received by minority populations. This study reviews the prevalence of incident reporting of medication errors for people with selected protected patient characteristics within an acute NHS Trust. The aim is to determine if there are unexplained variations.Method This cross-sectional study was conducted across an NHS Trust group of five hospitals, serving a diverse local population. Incidents reporting errors in medication use were obtained for the 7-month period between 1 January 2021 and 31 July 2021. The χ2 test was used to assess if protected patient characteristics impacted the rate of medicine-related error reporting.Result Medication error reporting is not equitable between different gender, ethnic or age groups. The results of this study show that these characteristics were negatively related to the number of medication incidents reported.Conclusion This study demonstrates that further systematic support is required to reduce the variations in medicine error reporting for patients with key protected characteristics. Infrastructure to overcome known barriers to safe care in the mainstream such as language, culture, beliefs and lower levels of understanding needs further development. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-93deccb4f4d14593bd6a8e54a5ded5d3 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2399-6641 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open Quality |
| spelling | doaj-art-93deccb4f4d14593bd6a8e54a5ded5d32025-08-20T02:26:16ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open Quality2399-66412025-04-0114210.1136/bmjoq-2024-003175Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristicsRaliat Onatade0Suki Bassi1Oscar Jakubiel Smith2Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UKPharmacy, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UKBarts Health NHS Trust, London, UKIntroduction It is widely acknowledged that health disparities exist in minority populations, with ethnicity, gender, language, ability and culture emerging as critical determinants of health outcomes. At present, research is available demonstrating that patients with protected characteristics experience less favourable patient safety outcomes. However, there has been limited focus on reviewing how processes within the healthcare system contribute to this inequity of care received by minority populations. This study reviews the prevalence of incident reporting of medication errors for people with selected protected patient characteristics within an acute NHS Trust. The aim is to determine if there are unexplained variations.Method This cross-sectional study was conducted across an NHS Trust group of five hospitals, serving a diverse local population. Incidents reporting errors in medication use were obtained for the 7-month period between 1 January 2021 and 31 July 2021. The χ2 test was used to assess if protected patient characteristics impacted the rate of medicine-related error reporting.Result Medication error reporting is not equitable between different gender, ethnic or age groups. The results of this study show that these characteristics were negatively related to the number of medication incidents reported.Conclusion This study demonstrates that further systematic support is required to reduce the variations in medicine error reporting for patients with key protected characteristics. Infrastructure to overcome known barriers to safe care in the mainstream such as language, culture, beliefs and lower levels of understanding needs further development.https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/14/2/e003175.full |
| spellingShingle | Raliat Onatade Suki Bassi Oscar Jakubiel Smith Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics BMJ Open Quality |
| title | Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics |
| title_full | Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics |
| title_fullStr | Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics |
| title_short | Disparities in medication error reporting: a focus on patients with select protected characteristics |
| title_sort | disparities in medication error reporting a focus on patients with select protected characteristics |
| url | https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/14/2/e003175.full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT raliatonatade disparitiesinmedicationerrorreportingafocusonpatientswithselectprotectedcharacteristics AT sukibassi disparitiesinmedicationerrorreportingafocusonpatientswithselectprotectedcharacteristics AT oscarjakubielsmith disparitiesinmedicationerrorreportingafocusonpatientswithselectprotectedcharacteristics |