Table 5.

Medication administration errors: Australian hospitals 1988–2007

	Total opportunities for error	Error rate (excluding minor timing errors)	Type of medication error
			Timing error	Wrong dose	Omission	Wrong formul'n or route	Other
WARD STOCK-BASED SYSTEMS
Stewart et al., 1991 [53]	2017	369 (18.3%)	75 (3.7%)	46 (2.3%)	82 (4.1%)	6 (0.3%)	160 (7.9%)
McNally et al., 1997 [54]	494	76 (15.4%)	22* (4.5%)	20 (4.0%)	13 (2.6%)	2 (0.4%)	19 (3.8%)
Lawler et al. 2004 [24]	4887	Omission only assessed			369 (7.6%)
COMBINATION SYSTEMS
Rippe and Hurley, 1988 [55]	312	52 (16.7%)	24 (7.7%)	6 (1.9%)	12 (3.8%)	3 (0.96%)	7 (2.2%)
Camac et al., 1996 [56]	370†	47 (12.7%)	25 (6.8%)	N/G‡	N/G‡	N/G‡	N/G‡
INDIVIDUAL PATIENT SUPPLY
de Clifford et al., 1994 [57]	164	10 (6.1%)	1 (0.6%)	2 (1.2%)	5 (3.0%)	0	2 (1.2%)
McNally et al., 1997 [54]	502	24 (4.8%)	12* (2.4%)	2 (0.4%)	7 (1.4%)	0	3 (0.6%)
Thornton and Koller 1994 [58]	242	20 (8.3%)	2 (0.8%)	0	13 (5.4%)	0	5 (2.1%)
IV FLUID ADMINISTRATIONS
Han et al., 2005 [25]	687	124 (18%)

* Major timing errors included, minor timing errors excluded – a deviation of 2 or more hours from the ordered time. All other studies define a 'timing error' as a deviation of one or more hours from the ordered time.

† Total data using two different storage sites – ward bay medication drawer and patient's bedside locker.

‡ N/G – insufficient data given to calculate rate of individual error types