Evaluating the Potential Severity of Look-Alike, Sound-Alike Drug Substitution Errors in Children.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Look-alike, sound-alike (LASA) drug name substitution errors in children may pose potentially severe consequences. Our objective was to determine the degree of potential harm pediatricians ascribe to specific ambulatory LASA drug substitution errors.

Methods

We developed a unified list of LASA pairs from published sources, removing selected drugs on the basis of preparation type (eg, injectable drugs). Using a modified Delphi method over 3 rounds, 38 practicing pediatricians estimated degree of potential harm that might occur should a patient receive the delivered drug in error and the degree of potential harm that might occur from not receiving the intended drug.

Results

We identified 3550 published LASA drug pairs. A total of 1834 pairs were retained for t

SUBMITTER: Basco WT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4852303 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature