Table 2 Medication incident reports, SA, WA and NSW
SA (pre 2002) [1] | WA 03/04 [42] | WA 04/05 [43] | WA 05/06 [44] | NSW 05/06 [45] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of incidents | 26999 | 23189 | 21693 | 20799 | 123404 |
Medication incidents | 7155 (26.5%) | 23.5%# | 24.0%# | 5068 (24.4%) | 17367 (14.1%) |
Outcome | |||||
No injury | 69%@ | 87.0% | 85.0% | 85.0% | 82%* |
Most common type of medication incident | |||||
Omission | 27.9% | 36.0% | 36.0% | 37.0% | |
Overdose | 19.5% | 18.0% | 17.0% | 19.0% | |
Prescription or order error | 14.0% | ||||
Unclear or incomplete order | 6.0% | ||||
Dispensing error | 3.3% | 2.0% | |||
Most common reason cited for medication incident | |||||
Failure to read or misread | 52% | 49.0% | 36.0% | ||
Failure to follow policy | 23.0% | 26.0% | |||
Medicines implicated | |||||
Cardiovascular; Analgesics, CNS, Endocrine, Antibiotics | Analgesics; Anticoagulants Diuretics; Respiratory; Proton Pump inhibitors | Analgesics; Anticoagulants; Diuretics; Steroids | Analgesics; Anticoagulants; Insulins; Diuretics | ||