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Errors Found in 10 of ER Prescriptions for Kids Mon Oct 7, 1:49 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One in 10 children who are treated in the emergency department may get the wrong dose of medicine or be administered medication at the incorrect frequency, new study findings suggest. Children seen between 4 AM and 8 AM, children with severe disease and kids seen on weekends were between 1.5 and 2.5 times more likely to experience a medication prescribing error, according to lead author Dr. Eran Kozer at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Errors were also more likely when a trainee doctor had ordered the medication. In their study, Kozer and colleagues note that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year in the US as a result of medical errors. And prescribing errors, they note, occur most frequently in pediatric and emergency departments. To better understand the nature of prescribing errors in pediatric emergency departments, Kozer's team evaluated medical records for 1,532 children treated in the emergency department of a pediatric hospital. Two pediatricians independently decided whether a medication error had occurred and gave errors a numerical 'severity score.' 'Prescribing errors were identified in 10.1% of the charts,' Kozer and colleagues report in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics. 'The most common types of prescribing errors were dosing errors, followed by drugs given with incorrect frequency,' they add. Kids seen between 4 AM and 8 AM and kids with severe disease were roughly 2.5 times more likely to have a prescribing error, the authors report. Those who had their medication ordered by a trainee or went to the ER on a weekend were nearly 1.5 times likely to have a prescribing error, they add. Drugs most commonly involved in prescribing errors included acetaminophen, antibiotics, asthma medications and antihistamines. 'Our findings suggest that errors are more common among seriously ill patie
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