Medication errors are prevalent among children, especially those younger than 6 years old. Analyzing a database of telephone calls to poison control centers in the United States, this study found that medication errors are frequent. Adverse drug events are most likely with liquid medications and often occur because of confusion with units of measure or administration of an incorrect medication. These findings support prior studies which revealed the challenges related to liquid medication dosing. Of concern, compared with older children, infants (children under age 1) were twice as likely to die or require admission to the intensive care unit for medication errors. American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines on standardized units of measure may address some of these administration errors. A previous AHRQ WebM&M commentary discusses medication safety in pediatric medicine.

Pediatric inpatients with chronic medical conditions had significantly higher rates of iatrogenic medical errors in this study, which analyzed the AHRQ-sponsored Kids' Inpatient Database. Nearly half of the pediatric inpatients in this large national sample had at least one chronic medical condition, and among these patients, the overall medical error rate was almost four times higher than the rate among children without chronic medical conditions. This association remained statistically significant after adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics, disease severity, and length of stay. The association between medical complexity and the risk of preventable harm while hospitalized has also been demonstrated in adult inpatients.