Merits of the study

Ghaleb and colleagues have conducted a comprehensive, multicentre study to assess the extent and types of prescribing and medication administration errors in paediatric inpatients. The study was across five hospitals around London, involving 10 wards for medication administration errors and 11 wards for prescribing errors. Prescribing errors were determined prospectively by ward pharmacists who reviewed the drug charts as part of their clinical practice. Medication administration errors were detected through a prospective, undisguised observational-based method.

The authors reported a prescribing error in 13.2% of medication orders whereas medication administration errors occurred in 19.1% of opportunities for errors. Incomplete prescriptions were the most common type of prescribing errors (41.2%), followed by use of abbreviations (24.0%). Whereas, errors in the preparation of medications, rate of intravenous infusion and incorrect …