Pharmacological errors in NICU

Excerpt

Medical errors are particularly frequent in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) [1], increasing morbidity and mortality of newborns [2]. This category of patients requires the application of high technology and needs individualized medical prescription mainly based on body weight and gestational age[3]. The most frequent event categories are wrong medication, dose, schedule, or infusion rate; error in administration or method of using a specific treatment; patient misidentification; error or delay in diagnosis and in the performance of an operation, procedure, or test [2]. The staff inexperience and intensity of workload are indicated as risk factors [4]. Most vulnerable newborns are those with indwelling infusion lines and long length of stay [1]. Common errors are due to the dose because of the lack of reference standards and of awareness of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics drug [1]. The Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care Organization (JCHAO) estimates as many as 95% of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in children remain unreported each year[5]. Frequent analysis of reporting data, training and meeting of all participating NICUs, implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and improve the staff with supervisor pharmacist might be help to detect errors and to learn about these [1, 4]. …