| Folli50 USA 1987 |
Prospective |
6 Months (1985) |
(1) Paediatric university teaching hospital(2) Paediatric community teaching hospital |
(1) 145 Beds (18 PICU, 54 NICU beds)(2) 100 Beds (16 PICU, 33 NICU beds) |
To report findings of (potential) severity of errant medication orders To assess the impact of pharmacist intervention to prevent harm |
| Vincer47 Canada 1989 |
Prospective |
2 Years (1986–7) |
University affiliated teaching hospital |
1200 NICU admissions (exclusively inborn nursery) each year, with 50 000 drug doses or IV infusions administered each year |
To document experience, with particular emphasis on the cause of all medication errors and incidents |
| Raju39 USA 1989 |
Prospective |
4 Years (1985–8) |
University hospital |
2147 Admissions, 1224 (57%) to a 17 bed NICU and 923 (43%) to a 7 bed PICU |
To establish a baseline pattern of errors To assess the frequency of drug related iatrogenic complications and to institute some corrective measures |
| Frey23 Switzerland 2000 |
Prospective |
1 Year (1998–9) |
Non‐university teaching hospital |
467 Admissions in a multidisciplinary 12 bed NICU/PICU (56% neonates) |
To examine the occurrence of critical incidents in order to improve quality of care |
| Ross51 UK 2000 |
Retrospective |
5 Years (1994–9) |
Paediatric teaching hospital |
From April 1995 to March 1999:112 536 Admissions (3373 to a 28 bed tertiary referral NICU) |
To determine the incidence and type of medication errors in a large UK paediatric hospital over a 5 year period To evaluate the potential impact of prevention strategies |
| Kaushal15 USA 2001 |
Prospective |
6 Weeks (1999) |
Two urban teaching hospitals |
1120 Admissions to 9 wards (1 NICU), mainly children 183 (16%) Neonates and 36 (3%) adults |
To assess the rates of medication errors and (potential) ADEs To compare paediatric rates with adult rates To analyse the major types of errors To evaluate the potential impact of prevention strategies |
| Frey24 Switzerland 2002 |
Prospective |
1 Year (2001) |
University teaching children's hospital |
Multidisciplinary 23 bed NICU/PICU |
To analyse drug related critical incidents, with an emphasis on how they contributed to system changes |
| Simpson41 UK 2004 |
Prospective |
1 Year (2002) |
University maternity hospital |
Large tertiary referral NICU |
To describe the medication errors occurring in the NICU To assess the impact of a combined risk management/ward based, clinical pharmacist led education programme on these errors |
| Suresh43 USA 2004 |
Prospective: phase 1 Prospective: phase 2 |
17 Months (2000–2)10 Months (2002–3) |
54 NICUs participating in the NICQ Collaborative (Vermont Oxford Network) |
Patients in NICU, step‐down unit, well‐infant newborn nursery, delivery room, newborn resuscitation room, mother's hospital room, other hospital inpatient unit, operating room, newborn infants during interhospital transport |
To implement a voluntary, anonymous, internet based reporting system for medical errors in neonatal intensive care and to evaluate its feasibility To identify errors that affect high risk neonates and their families |
| Kanter14 USA 2004 |
Retrospective |
1 Year (1997) |
Discharge data from community hospitals in >20 states (from the Healthcare Cost and Utilisation Project database) |
All discharges of neonates from 1997: total 815 296 Premature (<2500 g) 66 146 (8%)Full term 749 150 (92%) |
To determine the national rate of hospital reported medical errors in premature neonates and describe the patient and organisational characteristics associated with their occurrence |
