Medication errors impact children’s chemotherapy

Ten percent of children with a once-deadly childhood cancer do not get the correct chemotherapy regime because of medication errors, new research contends.

According to the report in the Aug. 14 online edition of Cancer, 9.9 percent of the oral chemotherapy medications were prescribed or given incorrectly to children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Medical errors in the United States cause up to 98,000 hospital deaths per year and are thought to be common among outpatients. But they have not been well studied, particularly in children.

Dr. James A. Taylor, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, conducted a study that found errors in 10 percent of the medications administered. Of the 17 errors in 69 children, 12 were the result of how the medications were administered and five were caused by prescribing errors -- incorrect dosages.

One of the ways of eliminating error is using electronic prescribing systems, said Dr. Lydia Gonzalez-Ryan, clinical director of the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "There needs to be standardized practices," she added. "We need to get into preprinted orders that set up quality control."