Do patients realize about medication safety implementation?

Abstract

Objective

To explore medication safety implementation based on patient perception.

Method

An observational analytic study with a cross-sectional approach was performed with 748 patients as the respondents who were selected from 15 hospitals in Malang, Indonesia. Patient perception of five moments for medication safety was measured using a 4-point Likert scale close-ended questionnaire.

Result

Most of the respondents (>50%) had been asked about the history of allergies and drugs they had taken, pregnancy and breastfeeding conditions, and informed about medication plan, drug administration time. Some areas that remain lacking were: information about drug function, side effect, dosage, and duration. Result reveals that 43–47% of patients had experienced a drug allergic reaction and side effects.

Conclusion

The lowest medication safety implementation is in the starting medicine stage, which is the drug side effects, while the highest is about the history of allergies.