Table 5

Medication administration errors: Australian hospitals 1988–2007

Total opportunities for error

Error rate (excluding minor timing errors)

Type of medication error

Timing error

Wrong dose

Omission

Wrong formul'n or route

Other

WARD STOCK-BASED SYSTEMS

Stewart et al., 1991 [53]

2017

369 (18.3%)

75 (3.7%)

46 (2.3%)

82 (4.1%)

6 (0.3%)

160 (7.9%)

McNally et al., 1997 [54]

494

76 (15.4%)

22* (4.5%)

20 (4.0%)

13 (2.6%)

2 (0.4%)

19 (3.8%)

Lawler et al. 2004 [24]

4887

Omission only assessed

369 (7.6%)

COMBINATION SYSTEMS

Rippe and Hurley, 1988 [55]

312

52 (16.7%)

24 (7.7%)

6 (1.9%)

12 (3.8%)

3 (0.96%)

7 (2.2%)

Camac et al., 1996 [56]

370^†

47 (12.7%)

25 (6.8%)

N/G^‡

N/G^‡

N/G^‡

N/G^‡

INDIVIDUAL PATIENT SUPPLY

de Clifford et al., 1994 [57]

164

10 (6.1%)

1 (0.6%)

2 (1.2%)

5 (3.0%)

0

2 (1.2%)

McNally et al., 1997 [54]

502

24 (4.8%)

12* (2.4%)

2 (0.4%)

7 (1.4%)

0

3 (0.6%)

Thornton and Koller 1994 [58]

242

20 (8.3%)

2 (0.8%)

0

13 (5.4%)

0

5 (2.1%)

IV FLUID ADMINISTRATIONS

Han et al., 2005 [25]

687

124 (18%)

* Major timing errors included, minor timing errors excluded – a deviation of 2 or more hours from the ordered time. All other studies define a 'timing error' as a deviation of one or more hours from the ordered time.

† Total data using two different storage sites – ward bay medication drawer and patient's bedside locker.

‡ N/G – insufficient data given to calculate rate of individual error types

Roughead and Semple Australia and New Zealand Health Policy 2009 6:18   doi:10.1186/1743-8462-6-18