Cross sectional surveillance of drug dispensing efficacy, availability and quality of labelling by patient care indicators in health care facilities

Although modern medicine has changed for better dispensing managements, the evidence still continues to mount that adverse drug reactions to medicine related to dispensing practices. The risk associated with dispensing of drugs is one of the major problems in achieving drug safety. Several studies showed that medication errors in prescription, dispensing and delivery had increased the harmful potentials of drugs in hospitals. An appropriate dispensing system is an important ally for prevention or reduction of medication errors. Considering all we decided to investigate dispensing errors in health facilities using patient care indicators validated by World Health Organization. A cross sectional survey was planned to assess primary care facilities: Teaching hospital (TH), General hospital (GH) and District hospital (DH) and the hospital in Galle.