Table 7. National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) categorization of medication errors.
Categories:
A: Circumstances or events that have the capacity to cause an error
B: An error occurred, but the medication did not reach the patient (error, no harm)
C: An error occurred that reached the patient but did not cause potential harm (error, no harm)
D: An error occurred that resulted in the need for increased patient monitoring but no patient harm (error, no harm)
E: An error occurred that resulted in the need for treatment or intervention and caused temporary patient harm (error, harm)
| Types of Medication Error | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Category E |
| Prescription (n = 208) | 133 | 52 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Documentation (n = 156) | 105 | 37 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Administration (n = 109) | 0 | 44 | 30 | 23 | 12 |
| Dispensing (n = 84) | 23 | 10 | 51 | 0 | 0 |
| Total (n = 557) | 261 (46.85%) | 143 (25.67%) | 118 (21.18%) | 23 (4.12%) | 12 (2.15%) |