Doctors find strategies to reduce medication errors among kids

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Doctors find strategies to reduce medication errors among kids

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many kids are not taking their prescribed medications, or take an incorrect dose, due to weaknesses in the chain from prescribing to filling prescriptions to administering medication, according to a new review of past studies. Between five and 27 percent of all pediatric medication orders result in children being prescribed or taking the wrong amount of the drug, and medication errors lead to approximately 7,000 deaths each year, the authors note. There are ways to fix the problem, but they will require cooperation between doctors, pharmacists and families, said lead author Dr. Michael L. Rinke, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in Bronx, New York. He said there's been more research on how doctors prescribe medications simply because that's easier to study than medication errors at home.

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