Study Identifies Factors Involved in 10-Fold Medication Errors among Pediatric Patients

Eliminating the need to calculate medication dosages by using fixed-dose weight-based order sets can reduce the incidence of 10-fold medication errors among pediatric inpatients, according to the authors of a study published in the May 2012 issue of Pediatrics. The study, which retrospectively reviewed all medication-related incident reports from a 300-bed university-affiliated Canadian pediatric hospital during a five-year period, examined 252 10-fold medication errors and identified some of the circumstances and mechanisms that can lead to such errors. In total, 22 reports described patient harm.