Table 4.

Number of HTA step discrepancies associated with specific types of guidelines

HTA step	BNF	Local guideline	NHS Injectable Medicines Guide	NICE guideline	SPC	Other guidelinea	Unknown guidelineb
Step 1 – find the right guideline(s)	36	193	34	6	8	36	12
Step 2 – find all relevant information within the guideline(s)	11	104	18	2	7	19	13
Step 3 – read and correctly use all relevant information	25	108	30	1	6	19	6
Totalc	72	405	82	9	21	74	31

^aOther guidelines were typically nationally published guidelines on specialist topics, such paediatrics, mental health or the administration of medicines to patients with swallowing difficulties

^bThe type of guideline was unknown when insufficient information was given in the incident report

^cSome discrepancies were associated with more than one guideline, therefore the table sums to more than the 642 identified HTA step discrepancies

BNF British National Formulary, HTA hierarchical task analysis, NHS National Health Service, NICE National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, SPC Summary of Product Characteristics