Assessment of Medication Errors in Pediatric Patients: Systematic Studies on Associated Variables

Abstract

Background: In hospitals, medication errors involving young patients such as infants and children have grown to be a serious issue. Such errors may have fatal consequences for patients. Mostly, these errors occur due to inattentiveness of physicians and health care providers. The current investigation was based on assessment and prevalence of characteristics errors in medications by focusing neonatal and pediatric patients to evaluate the possible interventions in medication errors.

Methods: A cross sectional observational study was done to analyze the medication errors reported in pediatrics and children at National Institute of Child Health (NIH), Karachi from the period January 2021 till December 2021. Only infant patients were included while adult and elder aged patients were excluded. The acquired data was processed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.

Result: In one year, 1039 medication errors were reported; fourteen distinct hypotheses pertaining to paediatric medication errors were considered. Compared to older patients, younger patients (ages 00–2.0) experienced a higher percentage of illness (43%), with the most common drugs being analgesics and antipyretics (21%), proton pump inhibitors (14.5%), and cephalosporin antibiotics (12.3%).

Conclusion: More challenges and precautions are required for safe and effective pediatric medications than adults. When giving antibiotics, analgesics, and antipyretics to children, extra caution is needed because either a high or low dose of the medication can cause adverse consequences or resistance respectively.