Death in Toddlers, Research Paper Example

The American Academy of Paediatrics contrasted the deaths of child toddlers as being 31% compared to that of 13% in Adults. The AAP committed to decreasing medication errors in Children and developing systems to learn from previous errors. Children vary in weight, body and surface area which affects the ability to excrete medication; as such erroneous prescriptions can have more serious consequences than that of adults.  The top ten causes for Pediatric  errors, in the period ending 31/12/2000 were noted to include performance details, procedures or protocols not followed, miscommunications and inaccurate prescriptions. Paediatric intensive care units statistics showed ” There were 11,828 admissions to the PICUs and 581 reported medication errors during the study period. Errors occurred during prescribing (12.6%), preparation and dispensing (16.0%), and administration (68.9%). Errors were classified as wrong dose (46.5%), medication (28.1%), time (19.8%), route (4.3%), or patient (1.4%). Twenty-seven percent of the errors had the potential for temporary harm, and 6.2% had the potential for permanent harm or death” (Portnoy J & Meeting, 2004).

There is also a need for greater care by the pharmacies in the interpretation of Doctors prescriptions. Misreading can have serious consequences ” A misplaced decimal point contributed to the death of a newborn child in a Denver hospital according to findings from a 1996 case study that was published in Hospital Pharmacy. With that error, an infant suspected of having congenital syphilis was treated with ten times the amount of medication that was ordered by the physician”  (McBane & Cooper, 2008).  Even Hospitals are not immune from the problem and particularly where nurses are allowed to float between departments without having the requisite skills ” Of the 105,603 errors documented, the vast majority were corrected before causing harm to the patient. But 2.4 percent of the total errors were more serious, resulting in patient injury, prolonged hospitalization and even death”  (Anon, 2002)

Works Cited

Anon. (2002, 12 4). Patient Safety Study Documents Medication Errors in Hospitals. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Science blog: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/patient_safety_study_documents_medication_errors_in_hospitals

McBane, N. I., & Cooper, R. M. (2008, 11 20). Preventing Devastating Consequences Via Process Changes. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Knol: http://knol.google.com/k/pediatric-medication-errors#

Portnoy J, D. T., & Meeting, A. (2004). Medication Errors in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: Risk Factors and Outcome. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Abstr AcademyHealth Meet. 2004; 21: abstract no. 1852. : http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=103624886.html