The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) has developed a system for classifying medication errors. This is intended to facilitate reporting and communication of errors.
Major Categories:
(1) no error
(2) error but no harm
(3) error with nonfatal harm
(4) error with patient death
Category
Findings
Category
no error
circumstances or events that have the capacity/potential to cause error
A
error but no harm
error occurred but the medication did not reach the patient
B
an error occurred that reached the patient but did not cause patient harm
C
an error occurred that resulted in the need for increased patient monitoring but no patient harm
D
error with nonfatal harm
an error occurred that resulted in the need for treatment or intervention and that caused temporary patient harm
E
an error occurred that resulted in initial or prolonged hospitalization and caused temporary patient harm
F
an error occurred that resulted in permanent patient harm
G
an error occurred that resulted in a near-death event (anaphylaxis, cardiac arrest or other emergency)
H
error with patient death
an error occurs that results in the patient's death
I
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