Errors occur at all stages of the medication process, starting with inadequate prescribing decisions, followed by errors of distribution and administration of the drugs, failure to identify the right patient, absence of follow-up and inadequate adherence of the patient. Missing information and failure to communicate appropriate information are also relevant factors that can lead to errors. Medi...

Input errors occur with drug infusion pumps when nurses or technicians incorrectly input the prescribed therapy through the control panel. Such number copying tasks are cognitively and visually demanding, errors are easily introduced and the process is often perceived as laborious. Stressful working conditions and poorly designed control panels will further add to the chance of error. An altern...

Medication errors and adverse drug events (ADEs) are serious hazards for patients all over the world. Reports of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimate that a patient in an US-hospital faces at least one medication error per day [1, 2]. Most medication errors, and a majority of ADEs, occur during the prescription phase of the medication cycle [3 –5]. Amongst other approaches, the Institute of...

OBJECTIVES To understand the incidence and types of medication prescribing errors in a low resource setting ophthalmology clinic and to determine the impact of a preprinted prescription based on the hospital formulary (FormularyScript) on medication prescribing errors. DESIGN Non-randomised interventional study. SETTING Ophthalmology clinic in a teaching hospital in northeast Thailand. PA...

Background Medication errors are the single most preventable cause of patient harm that occurs in a medical facility. From prescription to administration, there is a vast amount of opportunity for errors to occur. This emphasizes the need to evaluate the extent of medication error in the elderly as medication errors are estimated to be the fifth most common cause of death among hospitalised eld...