Objective: To improve the knowledge of medication errors in paediatrics: rate of occurrence, error characteristics, risk factors.
Patients and methods: Our prospective study included nine uninformed teaching paediatric wards (general paediatrics, emergency departments, intensive care units) using a describing questionnaire built from medical reports analysis (event description, medical issues, contributing personal and structural factors) during a two-months period.
Results: Seventy-five questionnaires were collected and analysed. Medical errors reported concerned prescription: 21 cases and administration: 45 cases. Ten errors led to adverse effects. An attributable factor was noted in 39 cases. Concerning prescription errors, no respect to protocol: 11 cases, lack of knowledge: 3 cases, personal communication failure: 3 cases were noted. Concerning administration errors, human mistakes (lack of experience, miscommunication, calculation error): 8 cases, unclear prescription: 6 cases and system flaws: 6 cases were noted. Several attribuable causes were reported in 8 cases.
Conclusions: Medication errors in paediatrics inpatients are common and contributing factors intricated. Paediatricians should help hospitals develop effective programs for safety providing medications, reporting medication errors, errors analysis strategy and creating a safe environment of medication for all hospitalised paediatric patients.