APPLICATION OF SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY TO REDUCE MEDICATION ERRORS IN THE OUTPATIENT PHARMACY UNIT: A CASE STUDY FROM THE KING FAHD UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, SAUDI ARABIA

Medication errors will affect the patient safety and quality of healthcare. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of Six Sigma (DMAIC) methodology in reducing medication errors in the outpatient pharmacy of King Fahd Hospital of the University, Saudi Arabia. It was conducted through the five phases of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) model using various quality tools. The goal was fixed as to reduce medication errors in an outpatient pharmacy by 20%. After implementation of improvement strategies, there was a marked reduction of defects and also improvement of their sigma rating. Especially, Parts per million (PPM) of prescription/data entry errors reduced from 56,000 to 5,000 and its sigma rating improved from 3.09 to 4.08. This study concluded that the Six Sigma (DMAIC) methodology is found to be more significant in reducing medication errors and ensuring patient safety.