Wrong dose of heart meds too frequent i...(f 6 months. Newborns and infants with co...),Health

Date:7/7/2009

f 6 months. Newborns and infants with congenital heart disease which occurs in four out of 1,000 U.S. babies are at high risk for such errors since heart medications are most commonly prescribed for them, researchers say. The other half of dosing errors occurred in patients between the ages of 1 year and 6 years.

The investigators say certain medication errors in children can be reduced or prevented by computerizing drug orders with built-in double- and triple-checking mechanisms that reduce the likelihood for miscalculation or misinterpretation, something Hopkins Children's is already doing. In 2006, Hopkins researchers demonstrated that Web-based ordering systems make it less likely to order and give a child a wrong dose. However, because computerized orders can prevent only certain types of errors, it is critical to find new ways and design new systems that reduce other types of errors as well, such as dispensing and administration errors, while at the same time recognizing the human factor.

"While it is essential to examine or modify system fail-safes, given the human factor in patient care, we also stress vigilance among hospital staff in all aspects of medication administration, from weight assessment to medication delivery," says lead investigator Diana Alexander, M.D., who conducted the study while at Hopkins and is now at St. Luke Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho.

Most of the harmful errors involved diuretics, used to treat heart failure and lower blood pressure by ridding the body of excess water, and antihypertensive (blood-pressure lowering) drugs, both of which are now widely used in infants with congenital heart disease and increasingly in older children and teens with high blood pressure.

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Contact: Ekaterina Pesheva epeshev1@jhmi.edu 410-516-4996 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Source:Eurekalert

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