Document Detail


Medication errors in the homes of children with chronic conditions.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21444297     Owner:  NLM     Status:  Publisher    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Background Children with chronic conditions often have complex medication regimens, usually administered at home by their parents. Objective To describe the types of medication errors in the homes of children with chronic conditions. Methods Our home visit methods include direct observation of administration, medication review and prescription dose checking. Parents of children with sickle cell disease and seizure disorders taking daily medications were recruited from paediatric subspecialty clinics from November 2007 to April 2009. Potential errors were reviewed by two physicians who made judgements about whether an error had occurred or not, and its severity. Results On 52 home visits, the authors reviewed 280 medications and found 61 medication errors (95% CI 46 to 123), including 31 with a potential to injure the child and 9 which did injure the child. Injuries often occurred when parents failed to fill prescriptions or to change doses due to communication problems, leading to further testing or continued pain, inflammation, seizures, vitamin deficiencies or other injuries. Errors not previously reported in the literature included communication failures between two parents at home leading to administration errors and difficulty preparing the medication for administration. 95% of parents not using support tools (eg, alarms, reminders) for medication use at home had an error compared to 44% of those using supports (χ(2)=13.9, p=0.0002). Conclusions Home visits detected previously undescribed types of outpatient errors which were common among children with sickle cell disease and seizure disorders. These should be targeted in future intervention development.
Authors:
Kathleen E Walsh; Kathleen M Mazor; Christopher J Stille; Irma Torres; Joann L Wagner; Juliet Moretti; Kevin Chysna; Christy D Stine; G Naheed Usmani; Jerry H Gurwitz
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Publication Detail:
Type:  JOURNAL ARTICLE     Date:  2011-3-27
Journal Detail:
Title:  Archives of disease in childhood     Volume:  -     ISSN:  1468-2044     ISO Abbreviation:  -     Publication Date:  2011 Mar 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-3-29     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0372434     Medline TA:  Arch Dis Child     Country:  -    
Other Details:
Languages:  ENG     Pagination:  -     Citation Subset:  -    
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
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