ReviewDrug safety2007
Incidence and nature of medication errors in neonatal intensive care with strategies to improve safety: a review of the current literature.
Review in Drug safety, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence, Causes and Severity of Medication Administration Errors in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Drug safety · 2022Pooled it
- Interventions to Reduce Pediatric Prescribing Errors in Professional Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review of the Last Decade.Paediatric drugs · 2021Pooled it
- Interventions to Reduce Medication Dispensing, Administration, and Monitoring Errors in Pediatric Professional Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Prevalence of Medication Errors Among Paediatric Inpatients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Drug safety · 2019Pooled it
- Factors contributing to medication errors made when using computerized order entry in pediatrics: a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2018Pooled it
- Interventions for reducing medication errors in children in hospital.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Analysis of Pharmacist Interventions to Reduce Medication-Related Problems in a Neonatal Clinical Care Unit.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evaluation of potential drug-drug interactions in the neonatal intensive care unit with two different decision support software: a retrospective study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Drug Incompatibilities and Complex Assemblies: Let Us Remain Vigilant!Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Accuracy of antibiotic concentrations in drug dispensing in neonates: a laboratory-based study.BMJ paediatrics open · 2023Article
- Impact of clinical pharmacist-led intervention for drug-related problems in neonatal intensive care unit a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Medication errors in neonatal intensive care units: a multicenter qualitative study in the Palestinian practice.BMC pediatrics · 2022Article
- An initiative to reduce medication errors in neonatal care unit of a tertiary care hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal: a quality improvement report.BMJ open quality · 2022Article
- Dose error reduction software in medication safety risk management - optimising the smart infusion pump dosing limits in neonatal intensive care unit prior to implementation.BMC pediatrics · 2022Article
- Errors in Antimicrobial Prescription and Administration in Very Low Birth Weight Neonates at a Tertiary South African Hospital.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- Association between neonatal intensive care unit medication safety practices, adverse events, and death.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2021Article
- Computerized Physician Order Entry in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Narrative Review.Applied clinical informatics · 2019Review
- Robotic Therapy: Cost, Accuracy, and Times. New Challenges in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2019Article
- Rational Use of Medicines in Neonates: Current Observations, Areas for Research and Perspectives.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
- Quality pharmacy services and key performance indicators in Polish NICUs: a Delphi approach.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neonates are highly vulnerable to medication errors because of their extensive exposure to medications in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the general lack of evidence on pharmacotherapeutic interventions in neonates and the lack of neonate-specific formulations. We searched PubMed and EMBASE to identify relevant original studies published in the English language. Eleven studies were identified on the frequency of medication errors in the NICU. The highest rate was 5.5 medication errors per 100 prescriptions; however, medication error rates varied widely between studies, partly due to differences in the definition of an error and the rigor of the method used to identify medication errors. Furthermore, studies were difficult to compare because medication error rates were calculated differently. Most studies did not assess the potential clinical impact of the errors. The majority of studies identified dose errors as the most common type of error. Computerised physician order entry and interventions by clinical pharmacists (e.g. the participation of pharmacists in ward rounds and review of patients' prescriptions prior to dispensing) were the most common interventions suggested to improve medication safety in the NICU. However, only very limited data were available on evaluation of the effects of such interventions in NICUs. More research is needed to determine the frequency and types of medication errors in NICUs and to develop evidence-based interventions to improve medication safety in the NICU setting. Some of these research efforts need to be directed to the establishment of clear definitions of medication errors and agreement on the methods that should be used to measure medication error rates and their potential clinical impact.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.