Medication errors in a children’s inpatient antineoplastic chemotherapy facility

Abstract

Background: Due to many antineoplastic drugs’ toxicity and narrow therapeutic window, medication errors are a health concern in pediatric oncology patients. This study aimed to identify and classify medication errors in a pediatric inpatient chemotherapy facility and evaluate the outcomes of these medication errors. Methods: We conducted an observational retrospective study over 5 months in a chemotherapy facility for pediatric patients. The evaluation consisted of the review of the available medical records. The medication errors detected were manually recorded in a medical logbook. The International Classification for Patient Safety was adjusted to our clinical setting for the analysis, the terminology, and the classification system. A descriptive analysis was performed. Results: A total of 286 medical records were reviewed; one type of medication error was noted in at least 97.6%, and 962 errors were identified totally, with an overall rate of 3.36 errors per visit. Most errors occurred in the documentation stage (643; 66.8%), followed by the administration stage (227; 23.6%). Of all medication errors, 37.2% had the potential to cause injury, but only five reached the patient (0.5%), and only two (0.2%) resulted in a severe harmful incident. Conclusions: Medication errors were common, especially at the documentation stage. Better documentation strategies need to be implemented to reduce the rate of near misses and prevent potential adverse events.