Preventability of Voluntarily Reported or Trigger Tool-Identified Medication Errors in a Pediatric Institution by Information Technology: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Information technology (IT) has the potential to prevent medication errors. While many studies have analyzed specific IT technologies and preventable adverse drug events, no studies have identified risk factors for errors still occurring that are not preventable by IT.

The objective of this study was to categorize reported or trigger tool-identified errors and adverse events (AEs) at a pediatric tertiary care institution. Also, we sought to identify medication errors preventable by IT, determine why IT-preventable errors occurred, and to identify risk factors for errors that were not preventable by IT.

This was a retrospective analysis of voluntarily reported or trigger tool-identified errors and AEs occurring from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. Medication errors reaching the patients were categorized based on the origin, severity, and location of the error, the month in which they occurred, and the age of the patient involved. Error characteristics were included in a multivariable logistic regression model to determine independent risk factors for errors occurring that were not preventable by IT. A medication error was defined as a medication-related failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim. An IT-preventable error was defined as having an IT system in place to aid in prevention of the error at the phase and location of its origin.

There were 936 medication errors (identified by voluntarily reporting or a trigger tool system) included and analyzed. Drug administration errors were identified most frequently (53.4% ), but prescribing errors most frequently caused harm (47.2 % of harmful errors). There were 470 (50.2 %) errors that were IT preventable at their origin, including 155 due to IT system bypasses, 103 due to insensitivity of IT alerting systems, and 47 with IT alert overrides. Dispensing, administration, and documentation errors had higher odds than prescribing errors for being not preventable by IT [odds ratio (OR) 8.0, 95 % CI 4.4–14.6; OR 2.4, 95 % CI 1.7–3.7; and OR 6.7, 95 % CI 3.3–14.5, respectively; all p < 0.001). Errors occurring in the operating room and in the outpatient setting had higher odds than intensive care units for being not preventable by IT (OR 10.4, 95 % CI 4.0–27.2, and OR 2.6, 95 % CI 1.3–5.0, respectively; all p ≤ 0.004).

Despite extensive IT implementation at the studied institution, approximately one-half of the medication errors identified by voluntarily reporting or a trigger tool system were not preventable by the utilized IT systems. Inappropriate use of IT systems was a common cause of errors. The identified risk factors represent areas where IT safety features were lacking.