Empowering the visually impaired by customized Braille prescription and thus reducing medication errors

Empowering the visually impaired by customized Braille prescription and thus reducing medication errors

Purpose: To assess the use of routine Braille prescription in reducing medication errors in visually impaired patients. Methods: This observational, questionnaire-based study was conducted in 100 blind or visually impaired patients who were Braille literate (aged ≥18 years). We initiated our Braille...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Indian journal of ophthalmology Vol. 69; no. 6; pp. 1388 - 1390
Main Authors: Shetty, Shalini, Sunita, S, Shetty, Isha
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: India Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd 01-06-2021
Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd
Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
Subjects:
Blind
braille prescription
Dosage
Drug therapy
Medical errors
medication error
Medication errors
Methods
Original
Patients
Prescription writing
Prevention
Printing and writing systems
Questionnaires
Visual impairment
Visually disabled persons
visually impaired
India
visually impaired
medication error
Braille prescription
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Summary:Purpose: To assess the use of routine Braille prescription in reducing medication errors in visually impaired patients. Methods: This observational, questionnaire-based study was conducted in 100 blind or visually impaired patients who were Braille literate (aged ≥18 years). We initiated our Braille prescription from January 2017 to March 2018. The questionnaire consisted of 8 items that captured patient details on the medication management process in addition to a face-to-face interview with them. It was administered twice to each patient at baseline and at the end. Braille prescription included details regarding all medicines, their dosages, instructions, expiry dates, and major side effects. The prescription was developed easily and quickly with an average turnaround time of 1 hour. Results: It was seen that most of the study patients aged between 30-40 years (n = 80) and majority were men (78%). At baseline, 73% of our respondents faced challenges when self-administering medications as compared to 17.5% at endline. After using Braille prescription, only 5% reported of taking a wrong dosage compared to 46.2% at baseline. Patients missing a dosage significantly reduced after using routine Braille prescription (43.7% vs. 7.5% respectively, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Our study successfully has rolled out Braille prescription as an efficacious method in addressing the key issues to medication safety with the visually impaired.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0301-4738
1998-3689
DOI:10.4103/ijo.IJO_1539_20