Medication‐related incidents in acute care hospitals among different age groups: An analysis of national patient safety report data

Purpose This study aimed to perform a nationwide analysis of medication errors (MEs) from hospitals using national reporting system data and to compare the ME patterns among different age groups. Methods We analyzed medication‐related incidents in acute care hospitals reported to the Korean Patient Safety Reporting and Learning System (KOPS), which is a patient safety reporting system, from July 2016 to December 2020. The stages of the medication use process, type of errors, medication class involved in MEs, and degree of harm were analyzed. Results Among a total of 5071 medication‐related incidents, 37.7% (1911 cases) were incidents that caused patient harm and 1.2% caused long‐term, permanent, and fatal harm. The proportion of medication‐related incidents that resulted in harm was the highest among the