The effect of documenting patient weight in kilograms on pediatric medication dosing errors in emergency medical services.
Ward CE, Taylor M, Keeney C, et al. The effect of documenting patient weight in kilograms on pediatric medication dosing errors in emergency medical services. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2023;27(2):263-268. doi:10.1080/10903127.2022.2028045.
Weight-based calculation errors and lack of weight documentation can lead to medication errors in pediatric patients. This analysis of Maryland emergency medical services (EMS) data including children who received a weight-based medication found that weight documentation was associated with a small but significantly lower rate of medication dose errors, particularly among infants and for epinephrine and fentanyl doses.