Medication errors: An Institute of Medical report 1 gives detailed information about deaths and adverse events
due to errors in medication. The report estimates that 7,391 deaths resulted from medication errors in 1993. The IOM report cites one study finding that about 2% of hospital admissions experienced a preventable adverse drug event, although the majority are not fatal. Medication error was cited as the cause of death for 1 in 131 outpatient deaths and 1 in 854 inpatient deaths. Children and infants are particularly at risk of medication errors mainly due to incorrect dosage, because of the need to modify dosages based on age and weight. The dosage modification may be either overlooked or miscalculated. Various studies have shown high error rates in doctors and nurses in calculating weight-dependent dosages in infants and especially neonates.
Causes of medication errors: People with kidney conditions, liver conditions, or known drug allergies were at the greatest risk. The IOM report cites the following factors as causal in medication errors: failure to alter a medication or dosage due to patient's reduced kidney or liver function (13.9%), known allergy to same medication class (12.1%); using the wrong drug name, dosage form, or abbreviation (11.4%), incorrect dosage calculations (11.1%); and atypical or unusual and critical dosage frequency considerations (10.8%). Data indicates the greatest risk in prescription errors from the doctor rather than the pharmacist with estimates as follows: prescribing errors (68%), administration errors (25%) and supply errors (7%).