[Prescription errors in a pediatric hospital department in Dakar, Senegal].

Prescription is the main source of medication error in daily medical practice. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution and cost of drugs used and causes of prescription errors in one department of the Albert Royer National Children's Hospital Center in Dakar, Senegal. Study was focused on patients admitted from December 1 to March 3, 2009. Based on 792 expected hospitalizations, 1 out of 2 patients was randomly selected to obtain a cohort of 400 patients for whom a total of 1267 prescriptions were written by pediatricians and interns on duty. Prescriptions were evaluated by pediatric professors to identify errors. The types of errors taken into account in this study involved indication, dosage schedule, and treatment duration. A total of 216 (17.0%) errors were identified including 121 cases (9.5%) involving indication mainly for antibiotics (30.5%) and antimalarial drugs (28.9%). Dosage schedule errors were observed in 58 cases (4.5%) involving antibiotics (24.1%) and antifungals (25.8%). These findings confirm the need for an intensive information campaign to prevent medication misuse in countries such as Senegal. Campaigns should be based on training of relevant therapeutic staff to optimize health care and improve availability for everyone.