The rate of nonintercepted serious medication errors in this pediatric population was reduced by 7% after the introduction of a commercial computerized physician order entry system, much less than previously reported for adults, and there was no change in the rate of injuries as a result of error. Several human-machine interface problems, particularly surrounding selection and dosing of pediatric medications, were identified. Additional refinements could lead to greater effects on error rates.

Serious pediatric computer-related errors are uncommon (3.6 errors per 1000 patient-days), but computer systems can introduce some new pediatric medication errors that are not typically seen in a paper ordering system.