Medication errors and adverse drug events among paediatric population in a secondary care private hospital in kerala, india

Objective: To study the events of medication errors among paediatric population.
Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted over a period of 10 months in a secondary care private hospital involving 300 pediatric patients based on the eligibility criteria. The cases were collected by chart review method and reviewed from the date of admission till discharge for the assessment of different types of medication errors.
Results: During the study it was observed that the error was observed in 62.6% of cases, and the total errors were 317. Out of 62.6% of errors, 95 prescriptions showcased ≥ 2 errors indicating prescribing error as highest involving 60.57% followed by 31.23% cases of administration error. ADR prevalence were exhibited in 5% of cases and 49.8% of the cases were under the category C type - error, no harm as per NCCMERP index. In the study 44 cases showcased a total of 57 drug interactions.
Conclusion: the incidence of medication errors is very high in paediatric inpatient setting. As majority of the errors were prescription related, indicates importance of clinical pharmacist for prescription monitoring and to assist nurses with dose calculation and proper administration schedule, thereby reducing the incidence of medication errors.