ArticleEuropean journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice2021
Severe and fatal medication errors in hospitals: findings from the Norwegian Incident Reporting System.
Article in European journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the Effectiveness of Interventions Implemented by Nurses to Reduce Medication Administration Errors in Hospitalised Acute Adult Patient Settings: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Pooled it
- Tackling medication errors: how a systems approach improves patient safety.European journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice · 2026Review
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- Nurses' sleep quality and medication administration errors: A cross-sectional study based on the ten rights framework.Medicine · 2026Observational
- Medication safety in family caregiving of older adults: home visits including interviews, observations, and medication reviews.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
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- Machine learning for medication error detection: a scoping review.Research square · 2026Article
- Health Care Staff-Reported Workplace Violence in Patient Safety Event Reports.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Improving Safe Initiation of Direct Oral Anticoagulant Therapy: A Two-Cycle Quality Improvement Project.Cureus · 2025Article
- Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of patient safety culture scale in medication administration.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- An Indispensable Requirement for Medical Dosage Calculation: Basic Mathematical Skills of Baccalaureate Nursing Students.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- The Use of PediSTAT Application by Paramedics Working in Saudi Arabia to Reduce the Risk of Medication Error for Pediatric Patients.Pediatric reports · 2025Article
- Disproportionality Analysis and Characterisation of Medication Errors in EudraVigilance: Exploring Findings on Sexes and Age Groups.Drug safety · 2025Article
- Enhancing Medication Safety: Reducing Administration Errors in Oncology Setting.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2025Article
- Investigating pediatric nurses' perceptions of factors contributing to MAEs at Yendi hospital, Ghana.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- Dose 4 You: Dose Division Calculator-A Tool to Reduce Calculation Errors.Hospital pharmacy · 2024Article
- Comparing Patient Satisfaction with Automated Drug Dispensing System and Traditional Drug Dispensing System: A Cross-Sectional Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2024Article
- An Assessment of Medication Errors Among Pediatric Patients in Three Hospitals in Freetown Sierra Leone: Findings and Implications for a Low-Income Country.Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics · 2024Article
- Article
- Reducing medication errors in HIV-positive patients: Influence of a clinical pharmacist.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEven with global efforts to prevent medication errors, they still occur and cause patient harm. Little systematic research has been done in Norway to address this issue.
objectivesTo describe the frequency, stage and types of medication errors in Norwegian hospitals, with emphasis on the most severe and fatal medication errors.
methodsMedication errors reported in 2016 and 2017 (n=3557) were obtained from the Norwegian Incident Reporting System, based on reports from 64 hospitals in 2016 and 55 in 2017. Reports contained categorical data (eg, patient age, incident date) and free text data describing the incident. The errors were classified by error type, stage in the medication process, therapeutic area and degree of harm, using a modified version of the WHO Conceptual Framework for the International Classification for Patient Safety.
resultsOverall, 3372 reports were included in the study. Most medication errors occurred during administration (68%) and prescribing (24%). The leading types of errors were dosing errors (38%), omissions (23%) and wrong drug (15%). The therapeutic areas most commonly involved were analgesics, antibacterials and antithrombotics. Over half of all errors were harmful (62%), of which 5.2% caused severe harm, and 0.8% were fatal.
conclusionsMedication errors most commonly occurred during medication administration. Dosing errors were the most common error type. The substantial number of severe and fatal errors causing preventable patient harm and death emphasises an urgent need for error-prevention strategies. Additional studies and interventions should further investigate the error-prone medication administration stage in hospitals and explore the dynamics of severe incidents.
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