Factors Associated With Medication Errors in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Abstract

Error rates in drugs administered exclusively in the emergency department are slightly higher than others evaluating house orders and emergency department treatments. The high assistance pressure during weekends and holidays and the tiredness during the night are risk factors of prescribing errors. Periodical evaluation of the prescriptions is necessary to develop the best strategies to apply every time.

Irrational Anti-Retroviral Therapy Prescription among Children Under 15 Years in Eastern Uganda

“…Errors of integration were higher than those found in studies that were conducted on essential medicines [25,26] and yet were…”

“…The proportion of children with irrational prescriptions was six to thirteen times higher than that encountered in three other studies [24,25,29]. However, two of these studies addressed essential medicines and were conducted in developed countries.…”

“…The total sample size generated was 246 children using a population prevalence of 20%. Studies in resource-rich countries had shown this to range from 4%-10% [24,25]. It was anticipated that this prevalence would be higher in resource-limited settings.…”

“…Two of the above studies had prolonged follow up times of two and four years and went further on to intervene when there were errors noted in the prescription making it possible that prescribers became more careful at prescribing over time and hence the lower error rates observed [24,29]. The timeframe covered in the cross-sectional study was also short at one week as compared to the 6 months that were investigated in this study potentially yielding fewer irrational prescriptions [25].…”

A continuous quality improvement project to reduce medication error in the emergency department

“…[3] In addition, the ED is also expected to manage complex error-prone procedures involving drug administration, for example, administration of thrombolytic agents and conscious sedation drugs. Other factors associated with medication errors include lower triaged level patients, time of day (more errors during weekend and night shifts[4]) and LASA drugs.…”