This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (43)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Informatics/ Internet in Medicine  • Internet  • Informatics, Other  • Patient Education/ Health Literacy  • Drug Therapy  • Medication Error  • Pediatric Dosing  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Rainu Kaushal, MD, MPH; Kenneth N. Barker, PhD; David W. Bates, MD, MSc

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155:1002-1007.

Background  Medication errors are common, costly, and injurious to patients.

Objective  To review the role of information technology in decreasing pediatric medication errors in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Design  We performed a literature review of current information technology interventions.

Results  Several types of information technology will likely reduce the frequency of medication errors, although insufficient data exists for many technologies, and most available data come from adult settings. Computerized physician order entry with decision support substantially decreases the frequency of serious inpatient medication errors in adults. Certain other inpatient information technologies may be beneficial even though less evidence is currently available. These include computerized medication administration records, robots, automated pharmacy systems, bar coding, "smart" intravenous devices, and computerized discharge prescriptions and instructions. In the outpatient setting, where adherence is especially important, personalized Web pages and World Wide Web–based information have substantial potential.

Conclusions  Medication errors are an important problem in pediatrics. Information technology interventions have great potential for reducing the frequency of errors. The magnitude of benefits may be even greater in pediatrics than in adult medicine because of the need for weight-based dosing. Further development, application, evaluation, and dissemination of pediatric-specific information technology interventions are essential.

From the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass (Drs Kaushal and Bates); and the School of Pharmacy, Auburn University, Auburn, Ala (Dr Barker).

Corresponding author and reprints: Rainu Kaushal, MD, MPH, Division of General Medicine, Floor PBBA 3, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: rkaushal{at}partners.org).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Information Technology and the Future of Child Health Care: A Revolution Is Occurring
Michael Weitzman and Richard N. Shiffman
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155(9):990-991.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Use of Health Information Technology by Children's Hospitals in the United States
Menachemi et al.
Pediatrics 2009;123:S80-S84.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Technology Implementation and Workarounds in the Nursing Home
Vogelsmeier et al.
J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 2008;15:114-119.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Pharmacists' perceptions of computerized prescriber-order-entry systems
Inquilla et al.
Am J Health Syst Pharm 2007;64:1626-1632.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Potentially Unintended Discontinuation of Long-term Medication Use After Elective Surgical Procedures
Bell et al.
Arch Intern Med 2006;166:2525-2531.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Students' and Residents' Perceptions Regarding Technology in Medical Training
Briscoe et al.
Acad. Psychiatry 2006;30:470-479.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Medical injuries among hospitalized children.
Meurer et al.
Qual Saf Health Care 2006;15:202-207.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Getting physicians to accept new information technology: insights from case studies.
Lapointe and Rivard
CMAJ 2006;174:1573-1578.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hospitalwide adverse drug events before and after limiting weekly work hours of medical residents to 80
Mycyk et al.
Am J Health Syst Pharm 2005;62:1592-1595.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Fostering Rational Regulation of Patient Safety
Mello et al.
Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 2005;30:375-426.
ABSTRACT  

Beyond usability: designing effective technology implementation systems to promote patient safety
Karsh
Qual Saf Health Care 2004;13:388-394.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Use of abbreviations in daily progress notes
Manzar et al.
Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2004;89:F374-F374.
FULL TEXT  

Computerized Physician Order Entry and Medication Errors in a Pediatric Critical Care Unit
Potts et al.
Pediatrics 2004;113:59-63.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Impact of Dedicated Medication Nurses on the Medication Administration Error Rate: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Greengold et al.
Arch Intern Med 2003;163:2359-2367.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Medication Errors
Thomas
CLIN PEDIATR 2003;42:287-294.
 

Resident Documentation Discrepancies in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Carroll et al.
Pediatrics 2003;111:976-980.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Prioritizing Strategies for Preventing Medication Errors and Adverse Drug Events in Pediatric Inpatients
Fortescue et al.
Pediatrics 2003;111:722-729.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Central Challenges Facing the National Clinical Research Enterprise
Sung et al.
JAMA 2003;289:1278-1287.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Incidence and Preventability of Adverse Drug Events Among Older Persons in the Ambulatory Setting
Gurwitz et al.
JAMA 2003;289:1107-1116.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Letter from the authors of "Improved Growth in Young Children with Severe Chronic Renal Insufficiency Who Use Specified Nutritional Therapy," which appeared on pages 2418-2426 of the November 2001 issue of JASN.
Parekh et al.
J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 2002;13:1421-1422.
FULL TEXT  

Information Technology for Children's Health and Health Care: Report on the Information Technology in Children's Health Care Expert Meeting, September 21-22, 2000
Shiffman et al.
J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 2001;8:546-551.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Information Technology and the Future of Child Health Care: A Revolution Is Occurring
Weitzman and Shiffman
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2001;155:990-991.
FULL TEXT