Table 3. Pediatric studies included in a recent Cochrane review (33), on CPOE, unit-dose systems with barcode scanners, and pharmacists on wards.

Study	Design	Study setting	Endpoint	Result
Electronic prescribing systems				Intervention	Control
King 2003 (e19)	Retrospective before/after study	I: 2 general wards C: 1 general ward, 2 surgical ward 36103 patients in total, USA	Medication errors per 1000 patient days	Before: 4.48 After: 3.13	Before: 4.80 After: 5.19	p < 0.001
Walsh 2008 (e20)	Before/after study	I: General wards, surgical ward, PICU, NICU C: none Total sample of 627 patients, USA	Serious medication errors that reached the patient, per 1000 patient days	Before: 23.1 After: 20.6	-	IRR (95% CI 0.69 to 1.78)
Unit-dose system with barcode scanner (BCMA)				Intervention	Control
Moriss 2009 (36)	Prospective before/after study	I: NICU C: not reported 958 patients in total, USA	Adverse drug reactions that are affected by the intervention as expected, per 1000 doses	Before: 0.86 After: 0.43	-	p = 0.008
Pharmacist on ward				Intervention	Controlphar
Kaushal 2008 (38)	Prospective before/after study	I: General ward (part time), surgical ward (part time), PICU (full time) C: general ward, surgical ward, cardiac-intensive ward 4863 patients in total, USA	Serious medication errors per 1000 patient days	General wards
				Before: 8 After: 9	Before: 7 After: 8	p = 0.78
				Surgical wards
				Before: 7After: 9	Before: 8 After: 10	p = 0.89
				PICU	Cardiac-intensive
				Before: 29 After: 6	Before: 20 After: 30	p < 0.01
Zhang 2012 (e28)	Randomized controlled study	Patients with neurological disorders, respiratory disorders, or digestive disorders, 150 patients in total, China	Hospital stay in days	7.33 ± 3.52	9.06 ± 5.47	p = 0.02

CPOE, computerized physician order entry; I, intervention; C, control; NICU, neonatal intensive care unit; PICU, pediatric intensive care unit; IRR, incidence rate ratio; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval