Los medication errors They are an avoidable cause of emergency visits. In the case of children, in a new study published in the journal Hospital pharmacy They caused two out of every 1,000 visits and in a third of the cases, they cause damage due to the adverse effects of the drugs.
Furthermore, in this research, the majority of those affected They were preschoolers (57.8%)while schoolchildren and adolescents more frequently experienced harmful medication errors.
The article collects the results of a prospective study that allows us to analyze the incidence of these errors, their origin, the age of the children, the most common types of errors and the drugs involved. In this way, it offers information to establish measures to prevent its appearance.
Six hospital pharmacists sign the work, Beatriz Garrido, Ma Jose Otero, Ines Jimenez, Yolanda Hernandez, Concha Alvarez del Vayo, and Cecilia Martinez, and the internist Javier Trujillo.
Garrido, from the Pediatric Pharmacy and Medication Safety Area at the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital (Murcia), explains that the detection of errors with medication in emergencies reflects the problems that arise in both primary and specialized care.