Table 1.
Medication error characteristics
| Characteristic | N | % |
| Year of reporting | ||
| 2016 | 1780 | 53.4 |
| 2017 | 1572 | 46.6 |
| Total | 3372 | 100.0 |
| Medication process stage* | ||
| Administration | 2544 | 67.8 |
| Prescribing | 888 | 23.7 |
| Preparation/Dispensing | 231 | 6.2 |
| Storage | 87 | 2.3 |
| Error type* | ||
| Wrong dose/strength or frequency (total) | 1354 | 37.5 |
| Omitted medicine or dose | 836 | 23.2 |
| Wrong drug | 548 | 15.2 |
| Wrong route | 198 | 5.5 |
| Contraindication | 191 | 5.3 |
| Wrong patient | 186 | 5.2 |
| Wrong formulation or presentation | 94 | 2.6 |
| Adverse drug reaction | 77 | 2.1 |
| Wrong dispensing label/instruction | 66 | 1.8 |
| Wrong storage | 60 | 1.7 |
| Reported by | ||
| Nurse | 2103 | 62.4 |
| Physician | 385 | 11.4 |
| Other staff | 169 | 5.0 |
| Leader | 71 | 2.1 |
| Bioengineer/Engineer | 43 | 1.3 |
| Midwife | 37 | 1.1 |
| Missing | 564 | 16.7 |
| Total | 3372 | 100.0 |
| Patient age (years) | ||
| 0–9 | 184 | 5.5 |
| 10–19 | 101 | 3.0 |
| 20–29 | 183 | 5.4 |
| 30–39 | 202 | 6.0 |
| 40–49 | 240 | 7.1 |
| 50–59 | 342 | 10.1 |
| 60–69 | 559 | 16.6 |
| 70–79 | 734 | 21.8 |
| 80–89 | 524 | 15.5 |
| 90–112 | 180 | 5.3 |
| Missing | 123 | 3.6 |
| Total | 3372 | 100.0 |
| Degree of harm | ||
| No harm | 1272 | 37.7 |
| Low harm | 1277 | 37.9 |
| Moderate harm | 538 | 16.0 |
| Severe harm | 177 | 5.2 |
| Death | 27 | 0.8 |
| Missing | 81 | 2.4 |
| Total | 3372 | 100.0 |
*The total number of error types and medication process stages was greater than the number of incidents because the classification system permitted more than one category to be selected for one incident.