Date of incident: 04/03/2013

Error type: dispensing error

Patient age: 23

Patient sex: female

Brief summary of incident: The patient was prescribed 56 promethazine hydrochloride 25mg tablets. Although the correct quantity was givin out and the correct direction, the wrong patient name was included on the label.

Name of medication: Promethazine Hydrochloride;

Level of harm that could have occurred: 1

The reason you think the potential harm is at the level you have chosen:
The patienet was given the correct medication and was aware of why they were prescribed it, and councelled on how to take it. As a result it would not have caused any harm. However, if the medication had have been given out to the patient whose name was on the label(the wrong patient) and myself or the patient failed to spot the error this could have led to more serious consequences.

Possible cause/contributory factors: I faied to check the accuracy of my label before dispensing the medication to the patient.

Reasons why incident occurred and actions required to prevent reoccurence:
I will ensure to check that I have put the correct patient name on the label.

Best description of this error/near miss:
wrong medicine label