Frequency of medical errors in hospitalized children in khorramabad Madani hospital during six months in 2008

Many hospitalized children are suffered from medical errors that may cause serious injuries. The aim of this study was to evaluate medical errors in hospitalized children in khorramabad Madani hospital in the first half of 2008. This study was a cross sectional that was performed for all medical errors in hospitalized children in khorramabad Madani hospital from 21/3/2008 to 21/9/2008. The sampling method was census. Studied variables included: age, sex, weight, kinds of errers, education of parents, job of parents. Data was collected by questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software. In this study out of 2250 records, 151 (6/3%) had medical errors. 53%were girls and 47% were boys that there was a significant relation between sex and medical errors. 46/4%were related to age group lower than 2 years old. Most of the errors were occurred in weight group of 6kg. Types of medical errors included drug ordering 46/3% (involved incorrect dosage of drug (37%), frequency 28%, rout 19% and others 16%), transcribing10%, administering32/4%, dispensing11/3%. Most errors related to liquid therapy 76/2% and intravenous rout 85/4%. Most errors were occurred during night 47% and during weekend 56/6%. Medical errors are common in hospitalized patients, and in our study the rate of medical errors was 6/3%. So further efforts are needed to reduce them.