Table 1.

Adverse drug events (ADEs) and potential ADEs: study definitions and examples [24]

Example	Definitions	Event type
Medication error (ME)	Any injury in any stage of the medication process, including ordering, transcribing, dispensing, administering or monitoring	A dose of non-critical medication is not given
Potential ADE	An incident with potential for injury; all potential ADEs are ME	An order was written for an overdose of medication but the mistake was intercepted by the pharmacy
ADE	Injury due to a drug	Drug rush
Preventable	Due to an error	Coma due to over dose of sedative
Non preventable (adverse drug reaction)	Injury, but no error involved	Allergic reaction in patient not known to be allergic