Table 3

Rates of medication errors

	n	Percentage	Rate per 100 patients	95% CI^*	Rate per 100 prescriptions	95% CI^*
Medication errors with minimal potential for harm
Total	1205	100	67.63	63.87 to 71.51	53.34	50.39 to 56.41
Stage of error
Ordering	1135	94	63.69	60.06 to 67.47	50.24	47.38 to 53.22
Administering	60	5.0	3.37	2.59 to 4.29	2.66	2.04 to 3.39
Dispensing	5	0.41	0.28	0.10 to 0.60	0.22	0.08 to 0.48
Transcribing	5	0.41	0.28	0.10 to 0.60	0.22	0.08 to 0.48
Type of error
Inappropriate abbreviation	357	30	20.03	18.03 to 22.18	15.81	14.22 to 17.50
Route issues	231	19	12.96	11.36 to 14.71	10.23	8.96 to 11.60
Amount issues	205	17	11.50	10.00 to 13.15	9.07	7.89 to 10.37
Direction issues	177	15	4.32	3.43 to 5.36	3.41	2.70 to 4.23
Strength issues	121	10	6.79	5.65 to 8.07	5.36	4.46 to 6.37
Dose issues	107	8.9	6.00	4.94 to 7.22	4.74	3.89 to 5.69
Other issues	62	5.2	3.48	2.68 to 4.42	2.74	2.12 to 3.49
Frequency issues	24	2.0	1.35	0.88 to 1.96	1.06	0.69 to 1.55
Duration issues	21	1.7	1.18	0.74 to 1.76	0.93	0.59 to 1.39
Near misses
Total	464	100	26.04	23.74 to 28.48	20.54	18.73 to 22.47
Stage of error
Ordering	278	60	15.6	13.8 to 17.5	12.31	10.92 to 13.81
Administering	107	23	6.0	4.9 to 7.2	4.74	3.89 to 5.69
Dispensing	42	9.1	2.4	1.7 to 3.1	1.86	1.35 to 2.48
Transcribing	30	6.5	1.7	1.2 to 2.4	1.33	0.91 to 1.86
Monitoring	1	0.22	0.06	0.003 to 0.25	0.04	0.003 to 0.19
Type of error
Dose issues	136	29	7.63	6.42 to 8.99	6.02	5.06 to 7.09
Other issues	95	20	5.33	4.33 to 6.48	4.21	3.42 to 5.11
Frequency issues	59	13	3.31	2.54 to 4.23	2.61	2.00 to 3.34
Strength issues	50	11	2.81	2.10 to 3.66	2.21	1.66 to 2.88
Duration issues	50	11	2.81	2.10 to 3.66	2.21	1.66 to 2.88
Direction issues	40	8.6	2.24	1.62 to 3.01	1.77	1.28 to 2.38
Amount issues	21	4.5	1.18	0.74 to 1.76	0.97	0.62 to 1.44
Route issues	12	2.6	0.67	0.36 to 1.13	0.53	0.28 to 0.89
Inappropriate abbreviation	1	0.22	0.06	0.003 to 0.25	0.04	0.003 to 0.19

↵* Rate calculations based on data from 1782 patients and 2259 prescriptions.