How to Harm Children with Medicines – a guide for

pharmacists*

James Wallace – Yorkhill Hospital Glasgow

Peter Mulholland – Southern General Hospital Glasgow

*With apologies to Professor Imti Choonara

Learning outcomes

• Definitions & identification of medication errors

• Extent & nature of medication errors in children

• Strategies to avoid errors

A medication error is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use

or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient or

consumer

Definition

In the UK

• The UK Department of Health in 2000 recognised that a weakness of the NHS is in preventing serious incidents in which patients are harmed or experience poor outcomes of care. 

NPSA 2007. Safety in doses: improving the use of medicines in the NHS.

• National Reporting and Learning System - 60,000 incidents reported in 18 months

• Children ≤ 4years involved in 10% incidents where age stated

NPSA 2007. Safety in doses: improving the use if medicines in the NHS

Recurring themes– Problems with injectable medicines– Gentamicin – NPSA alert issued Feb 2010– Children being treated in non-paediatric

areas– Errors in dose calculation– 10 fold errors– Vaccines

Most common error type

• Dosing errors 28%

• Route of administration 18%

• MAR transcription & documentation14%

• Wrong date 9.9%

• Frequency 9.4%

Classification of errors

•Wrong dose administered•Dose omitted•Additional dose given•Wrong drug given•Wrong infusion rate•Dispensing / labelling error•Wrong I/V concentration•Wrong patient•Wrong route•Other

How do errors occur?

• Medication errors are almost never caused by the failure of a single element or the fault of a single practitioner

• Usually the result of the combined effects of ‘latent’ errors in the system combined with ‘active failures by individuals

Why do individuals make errors ?

Psychological state

Interruptions

Lack of information

Calculation errors -Electronic calculators

Corporate livery

Confirmation bias

Tiredness/stress

Noise

Temperature

Workload/staffing levels / Rotas

• Unreasonable to expect absolute perfection or error free performance from any person

• Systems need to be in place to minimise the risk of medication errors by providing opportunities for checks, good communication, and a stress free environment

• In any post error evaluation process - any system deficiencies should be identified and corrected before placing all responsibility on human error

Why are children at greater risk of medication errors?

& What can WE do about it?

• Drug doses calculated individually– Based on age, weight, surface area– More calculations– Weights change rapidly (esp neonates)– 10-fold errors

• Inadequate information

• Incorrect use of dose information resources

Why are children at greater risk of medication errors?

& What can WE do about it?

• Lack of suitable dosage forms and concentrations

• Need for complex calculations & dilutions by medics/nurses/pharmacy

Medication errors with the potential to cause harm are eight times more likely to occur in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) compared with hospital patient care areas for adults.

Kaushal R, Bates DW, Landrigan C et al. Medication errors and adverse drug events in pediatric inpatients. JAMA. 2001; 285:2114–20.

Medication errors in children more likely with unlicensed medicines

Percent of prescriptions

Percent of errors

Off-label 23% 10%

Unlicensed 7% 17%

13% of errors caused moderate harm and 60% of these involved unlicensed and off label drugs. Medication errors causing moderate harm were significantly more likely to be associated with unlicensed

and off label drugs than licensed drugs

Reference: Arch Dis Child, published early online 4 December 2010

• Children can’t always tell us – if we’re about to make a mistake – if they suffer adverse effects

• Children have less internal reserves with which to ‘buffer’ the effects of errors

Strategy for error reduction

Reporting system

Review of errors

Identification of system weaknesses

Change of policies / procedures / training / availability of information

Feedback to staff

Non disciplinary

Confidential telephone line

What has been done?

• Ward-based clinical pharmacist 95%

• Computerised physician order entry with decision support 68%– e.g. drug-allergy; drug-dose; drug-drug

interaction checks

• Computerised medication administration record 18%

Kaushal R et al. Medication errors and adverse drug events in pediatric inpatients. JAMA 2001;285:2114-20

Interventions• Increased input from clinical

pharmacists• Prospective review of 10778 medication orders in two

children’s hospitals• Analysed 10 error prevention strategies• 3 interventions had the greatest potential impact

• clinical pharmacists might have prevented 81.3%• computerised prescribing might have prevented 72.7%• improved communication between staff might have

prevented 47.7%• In combination 98.5% could potentially have been

prevented.

Fortescue et al, Pediatrics. 2003;111:722-9

• Simpson et al (Arch Dis Child 2004) Glasgow– Pharmacist led education programme– Errors fell from 24/1000 to 5/1000– Change in staff increased rate to

12/1000– Still lower than before intervention

Ways to avoid?

• Education for prescribers (& testing?)• Rules regarding zeroes/decimal points• Ready access to paediatric drug dosing texts• Avoid calculations by use of standard

doses/dose charts etc• Provide drug monographs of high risk drugs• Individualised emergency drug dose chart

Other ways to avoid?

• Check weight is appropriate for age

• Ensure dose is not > adult dose

• Do not accept poor/ambiguous prescriptions

• Accurate patient history taking– involve families – maintain patient profiles for regular patients

Other ways to avoid?

• Avoiding interruptions– tabards– quiet room– medication nurse/technician

• Double checking

• Root-cause analysis of all major errors

Purchasing for safetyAssess all new products before introducing:

• Handwritten drug name

• Verbal drug name• Dose overlap• Presentation• Directions &

frequency

• Indication• Alphabetical

location• Packaging &

labelling• Information

Storage for safety

Numerous commercially available parenteral medications indicated for neonates were being stored on shelves in the central pharmacy adjacent to similar-sounding and similar-appearing medications for adults.

• ResolutionNeonatal medications were segregated into a “neonates

only” portion of clearly marked shelving. Purchasing personnel created this new segregated shelving space and allocated purchased medications to this space when deliveries arrived from the distributor

Summary

• Acknowledge the problem

• Quantify it’s extent and causes

• Cease finger pointing

• Analyse all errors via quality assurance

• Evaluate proposed solutions

Summary of learning points

• Establishment of a medication error review scheme is essential

• A ‘no blame’ system of reporting should be established

• Suitable paediatric reference sources should be readily available

• Users should be aware of problems relating to unlicensed or off label drug use

• Patients / carers should have suitable information

• Any system that helps prevent medical mistakes, by helping doctors come forward without the fear of being blamed, would hold real benefits for the NHS

Michael Wilks, chairman of the British Medical Association's Medico-

Legal Committee