(4)(5)(6) .Literature suggests that the incidence of medication errors in pediatrics is twice or three times as high as in adults, and also that pediatric patients are at higher risk of death when compared to adults (7)(8)(9)(10)(11) . These errors also represent an important The pharmacy service is responsible for the safe and efficient use of medication in hospitals and plays an essential role in integrating the prescription, dispensing and administration processes and should have policies and procedures to prevent errors (4)(5)8) .The rate of errors is considered one of the best indicators of quality of medication distribution systems and is still used to evaluate the safety of these systems (4,6,9) .Some studies, published in the United States and England, showed an incidence of dispensing errors of about 10%, even in hospitals with advanced medication distribution systems, such as unit doses (7,11) .A few studies were carried out in Brazil, specifically on medication dispensing processes, and presented high rates of errors, above 10% (5,8) . In the pediatric area, especially in Brazil, no study was found on dispensing errors and, to date, their cause and epidemiology are unknown.Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the dispensing process of the pharmacy service at a public pediatric hospital. Important indicators were used to measure the dispensing process and the rate of total dispensing errors was the global indicator of its quality. MATERIAL AND METHODS Study designCross-sectional, descriptive study, carried out Variables OperationalizationErrors were classified according to the criteria used in a previous study (10) in:Content errors

Purpose This study systematically reviewed studies to determine the frequency and nature of medication administration errors in Latin American hospitals. Summary We systematically searched the medical literature of seven electronic databases to identify studies on medication administration errors in Latin American hospitals using the direct observation method. Studies published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese between 1946 and March 2021 were included. A total of 10 studies conducted at 22 hospitals were included in the review. Nursing professionals were the most frequently observed during medication administration and were observers in four of the ten included studies. Total number of error opportunities was used as a parameter to calculate error rates. The administration error rate had a median of 32% (interquartile range 16%–35.8%) with high variability in the described frequencies (9%–64%). Excluding time errors, the median error rate was 9.7% (interquartile range 7.4%–29.5%). Four different definitions of medication errors were used in these studies. The most frequently observed errors were time, dose, and omission. Only four studies described the therapeutic classes or groups involved in the errors, with systemic anti-infectives being the most reported. None of the studies assessed the severity or outcome of the errors. The assessment of the overall risk bias revealed that one study had low risk, three had moderate risk, and three had high risk. In the assessment of the exploratory, observational, and before-after studies, two were classified as having fair quality and one as having poor quality. Conclusion The administration error rate in Latin America was high, even when time errors were excluded. The variation observed in the frequencies can be explained by the different contexts in which the study was conducted. Future research using direct observation techniques is necessary to more accurately estimate the nature and severity of medication administration errors.

Background: Medication errors are frequent and have a high economic and social impact and is critical to know their severity. A variety of tools exist to measure and classify the harms associated with medication errors, but few are internationally validated.Design and methods: It was decided to validate a method proposed by Dean and Barber for assessment of the potential severity of medication administration errors. A number of thirty health care professionals (doctors, nurses and pharmacists) from Brazil will receive an invitation to take part by scoring 50 cases of medication errors gathered from an original UK study regarding their potential harm to the patient on scale 0 to 10. Sixteen cases with known actual harm outcomes will be used to assess the validity of their scoring. By looking at 10 errors (out of the 50 cases) scored twice, reliability shall be assessed; and potential sources of variability in scoring will be evaluated depending on the severity of each of error case, the occasion when the scores were given, the scorer, their profession, and interactions among these variables. Generalizability theory will be used for analysing data.Expected impact of the study for public health: This study was submitted to the evaluation of the Research Ethics Committee of the Complexo Hospitalar Universitário Professor Edgard Santos and approved under no. 3.102.570/2019. This is the first validation of this method for use in Brazil, and will allow researchers to conduct more standardised evaluations of interventions to reduce the impact of medication errors.

Background Medication administration errors are frequent and cause significant harm globally. However, only a few data are available on their prevalence, nature, and severity in developing countries, particularly in Brazil. This study attempts to determine the incidence, nature, and factors associated with medication administration errors observed in a university hospital. Methods This was a prospective observational study, conducted in a clinical and surgical unit of a University Hospital in Brazil. Two previously trained professionals directly observed medication preparation and administration for 15 days, 24 h a day, in February 2020. The type of error, the category of the medication involved, according to the anatomical therapeutic chemical classification system, and associated risk factors were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression was adopted to identify factors associated with errors. Results The administration of 561 drug doses was observed. The mean total medication administration error rate was 36.2% (95% confidence interval 32.3–40.2). The main factors associated with time errors were interruptions. Regarding technique errors, the primary factors observed were the route of administration, interruptions, and workload. Conclusions Here, we identified a high total medication administration error rate, the most frequent being technique, wrong time, dose, and omission errors. The factors associated with errors were interruptions, route of administration and workload, which agrees well with the results of other national and international studies.