Prevalence and nature of medication errors and preventable adverse drug events in paediatric and neonatal intensive care settings: A systematic review

Summary

Children admitted to paediatric and neonatal intensive care units may be at high risk from medication errors (MEs) and preventable adverse drug events.

In this systematic review published in Drug Safety, Alghamdi et al., reviewed empirical studies examining the prevalence and nature of MEs and preventable adverse drug events in paediatric and neonatal intensive care units. They found that medication errors occur frequently in critically ill children admitted to paediatric and neonatal intensive care units and may lead to patient harm. Important targets such as dosing errors and anti-infective medications were identified to guide the development of remedial interventions.

Content

Key messages

• Medication errors (MEs) are common and persistent problems that may pose significant risk to critically ill children admitted to paediatric and neonatal intensive care units.
• Prescribing and medication administration errors were the common types of MEs and dosing errors were the most frequent ME subtype in both paediatric and neonatal intensive care unit settings.
• Anti-infective medications were the commonly reported drug class associated with MEs/preventable adverse drug events across both intensive care unit types.
• Further research is needed to examine medication administration errors and preventable adverse drug events in children’s intensive care settings.