Medication errors in prescription and administration in critically ill patients

Aim To determine the prevalence and magnitude of medication errors and their association with patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and nurses' work conditions. Design An observational, analytical, cross‐sectional and ambispective study was conducted in critically ill adult patients. Methods Data concerning prescription errors were collected retrospectively from medical records and administration errors were identified through direct observation of nurses during drug administration. Those data were collected between April and July 2015. Results A total of 650 prescription errors were identified for 961 drugs in 90 patients (mean error 7[SD 4.1] per patient) and prevalence of 47.1% (95% CI 44–50). The most frequent error was omission of the prescribed medication. Intensive care unit stay was a risk factor associated with omission error (OR 2.14; 1.46–3.14: p