• Noelia Vicente Oliveros, Teresa Gramage Caro, Covadonga Pérez Menendez-Conde, Ana María Álvarez-Díaz, Sagrario Martín-Aragón Álvarez, Teresa Bermejo Vicedo, and Eva Delgado Silveira.
• Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Department of Pharmacy, Madrid, Spain.
• J Eval Clin Pract. 2017 Aug 1; 23 (4): 888-894.

Rationale, Aims, And ObjectivesTo evaluate the effect of an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) application on the rate of medication errors in medication administration recording (ME-MAR).MethodsA before-and-after, quasiexperimental study was conducted in a university hospital that implemented the eMAR application in March 2014. Data collection was conducted in April 2012 (pre-) and June 2014 (post-) by two pharmacists. The ME-MARs were analysed by the staff involved to identify their cause. The two pharmacists independently classified the ME-MARs. In the case of disagreement, a research team examined the ME-MARs and categorized them by consensus. Three classifications were used: A classic medication error taxonomy and 2 technology-induced error taxonomies.ResultsThe pharmacists analysed 2835 (pre-) and 2621 (post-) medication administration records (MAR), respectively. Overall, the ME-MAR rate decreased from 48.0% (pre-) to 36.9% (post-) (P < .05). The same types of ME-MAR were observed in both phases except for "MAR with incomplete information," which was not observed in the postimplementation phase. In both phases, the most frequent ME-MAR was "MAR at the wrong time" (MAR before or after medication administration) (31.6% vs 30.2%). The main cause of ME-MARs in both phases was the failure to follow work procedures. The potential future risk of ME-MARs significantly decreased after the eMAR implementation (P < .05). All ME-MARs were "use errors" because of human factors. New ME-MARs (1.24%; n = 12) were observed in the postimplementation phase.ConclusionUse of the eMAR application significantly reduces the rate of ME-MAR and their potential risk. The main cause of ME-MAR was the failure to follow work procedures.© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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