Elsami et al identified risk factors for medication errors in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The authors are from Imam Khomeini Hospital and Ahvaz Jundishapur Unversity in Iran.
Patient selection: patient in a neonatal ICU
Common problems:
(1) wrong dosage
(2) failure to administer a medication
(3) wrong route of administration
(4) wrong dosing interval
(5) lack of time and/or date of order
Risk factors for errors:
(1) preterm neonate (gestational age < 37 weeks; OR 21.6 for wrong dose)
(2) manual ordering systems (lack of computerized physician order entry)
(3) low nurse-to-patient ratio
Additional factors:
(1) age at admission < 7 days
(2) hospital length of stay < 7 days
It is also important to ensure positive identification of the patient prior to administering a dose.
