Numerous types of medication errors occur in a pediatric clinic. Prescribing errors take place among all medical trainees; however, medication error rates in the pediatric population may vary among resident specialty. Identifying the cause of prescribing errors will allow institutions to create educational programs tailored for safe medication use in children as well as systemwide changes for error reduction.

Purpose Data from solid tumor malignancies suggest that actual body weight (ABW) dosing improves overall outcomes. There is the potential to compromise efficacy when chemotherapy dosages are reduced, but the impact of dose adjustment on clinical response and toxicity in hematologic malignancies is unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of utilizing a percent of ABW for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) induction chemotherapy dosing. Methods This retrospective, single-center study included 146 patients who received 7 + 3 induction (cytarabine and anthracycline) for treatment of AML. Study design evaluated the relationship between percentage of ABW dosing and complete response (CR) rates in patients newly diagnosed with AML. Results Percentage of ABW dosing did not influence CR rates in patients undergoing induction chemotherapy for AML (p = 0.83); nor did it influence rate of death at 30 days or relapse at 6 months (p = 0.94). When comparing patients dosed at 90–100 % of ABW compared to <90 % ABW, CR rates were not significantly different in patients classified as poor risk (p = 0.907). All favorable risk category patients obtained CR. Conclusions Preemptive dose reductions for obesity did not influence CR rates for patients with AML undergoing induction chemotherapy and did not influence the composite endpoint of death at 30 days or disease relapse at 6 months.