Minimize medication and prescription errors in pediatric practice: ensure well-being of the children.

medication and prescription errors in pediatrics

Abstract

Children are vulnerable to Medication errors (MEs). MEs harm to the pediatric population three times more than adults. Prescription error is one of the main MEs. Around 70% of MEs are due to prescription errors. The main reasons for prescription errors are poor selection of drug, wrong choice of drug, inadequate dosage of drug, inappropriate route of administration, inapt frequency or duration of drugs, illegible handwriting, incorrect spelling of drug, lack of knowledge of drug, disruption while writing prescription. Prescribing for children is a dilemma. There is variation in occurrence of prescription errors in the pediatric patients. Stakeholders involved in care of pediatric patients must be trained in how to lessen these errors. Trained pharmacists should be the part of the caring team, so as to minimize medication and prescription errors in pediatric patients and thereby ensure safety of the children.