Babies, Parenting, Child Health, Infant Nutrition

Baby Development – National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality Finds Drug Errors Hurt 1 in 15 ospitallized Kids

04.17.2008 | 9:04:43 pm | Posted by mummums

By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kids Nutrition Specialist

It might not be easy get an exact measure of medicine when comforting your little one in the middle of the night. Of course if your child is in the hospital, you would expect the doctors and nurses to be much more accurate when giving your child medication. Yet doctors and nurses are human too, and can make mistakes just like everybody else.

A group of researchers set out to discover just how many mistakes are made when it comes to caring for infants and children. Reviewing 1,000 randomly chosen medical charts, researchers discovered about 11 “adverse drug effects” for every 100 kids as well as 2.5 triggers indicating a potential error per patient. Safety experts warn the problem may be even bigger than the study suggests because only a select number of charts were reviewed.

baby development, parenting To assist in assessing the scope of the problem, researchers created and tested a tool to seek for “triggers” in a child’s medical chart that signified situations in which administered drugs came with a higher risk of potential problems. Unfortunately, this new analytic tool uncovered significantly higher rates of medical errors than previous methods had found. Hospitals’ own tools for assessing drug errors found 4% less problems than the new research tool.
Fortunately, 97% of the medication mishaps caused only minor, temporary discomfort mainly from the use of antibiotics and pain killers. Other key findings of the study include:

17% of the errors could have been handled better
About 18% could have been detected sooner
Almost one quarter of the medical errors were preventable

The results were shocking enough for the Joint Commission’s latest edition of the Sentinel Event Alert to urge doctors to take greater precautionary measures when administering medications to kids including calculating proper dosages and obtaining the child’s current weight prior to medicating.

Questioning and scrutinizing your child’s physician in the hospital may only add to the stress, but working with them can be very beneficial. It is certainly acceptable to be an advocate for your baby’s health by asking questions and listening to responses. Be sure to speak up if there is something you do not understand and ask about any equipment being used on your child or any tests being performed. This can help you know what your child is being tested for and what the results will reveal. In addition, be sure to record any medication your child is given and ask about dosage and potential side effects. You should also provide full disclosure and answer any questions from the doctor fully and honestly. It is best to keep a journal of medications, tests, and symptoms so should any adverse side effects occur; you may an idea of the cause. Lastly, remember to trust your instincts, you know your child better than anyone else.

Resource:
"Development, Testing, and Findings of a Pediatric-Focused Trigger Tool to Identify Medication-Related Harm in U.S. Children's Hospitals," Pediatrics, April 2008.

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