Frequency, percentage and potential consequences of secondary infusion errors
| Error type | Frequency (n=32) | Percentage | Potential consequences |
| Bag mis-alignment (eg, positioning the therapeutic drug bag at or below the level of the maintenance fluid bag) | 12 | 37% | Mixing and concurrently delivering the therapeutic and maintenance fluids |
| Programming errors (eg, conversion calculation errors) | 9 | 28.13% | Delivering the maintenance fluid and/or the therapeutic drug at an incorrect rate |
| Confusion in the programming sequence (eg, programming the therapeutic drug at the rate of the maintenance fluid) | 6 | 18.75% | Infusing incorrect infusion rates of the therapeutic drug and/or maintenance fluid |
| Forgetting to open the clamp on the therapeutic tubing | 3 | 9.38% | Accidental administration of the maintenance fluid when intending to initiate the therapeutic drug infusion, and the maintenance fluid being infused at the rate of the therapeutic drug |
| Tubing arrangement errors (eg, connecting the infusion line from the therapeutic drug bag into the wrong port on the primary infusion line) | 2 | 6.25% | Free-flowing therapeutic drug into the patient |