Risk factors for i.v. compounding errors when using an automated workflow management system

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy automation
• Medication safety
• Pediatric healthcare

Background:

• Automated compounding systems are increasingly used for intravenous (IV) medication preparation.
• Ensuring accuracy and safety in automated IV compounding is critical, especially in pediatric settings.
• Understanding error rates and risk factors is essential for quality improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the frequency of errors in automated compounding of IV medication doses.
• To identify risk factors associated with IV compounding errors in a pediatric hospital.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from an automated IV compounding workflow management system over 12 months.
• Descriptive analysis of error frequency and type.
• Multivariate logistic regression to identify risk factors for compounding errors.

Main Results:

• An overall error rate of 0.74% was observed among 421,730 IV doses.
• The automated system intercepted 72.27% of errors; 27.73% were found during final pharmacist inspection.
• Significant risk factors for errors included morning shifts, Sundays, critical care unit preparation, and technician compounding.

Conclusions:

• The automated IV compounding system detected a 0.74% error rate.
• Four factors were identified as significant predictors of increased risk for IV compounding errors.