Factors causing medication errors in an electronic reporting system

To analyse medication error data from a hospital's electronic reporting system and identify the factors affecting error types and harmfulness.

A retrospective study.

The 805 near misses and adverse events reported to the hospital's electronic reporting system between January 2014 and December 2018 were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses.

A total of 632 near misses and 173 adverse events were reported. Near misses and adverse events were the most common error type during the dispensing stage and medication administration, respectively. The odds of medication errors reported by nurses with 1-9 years of clinical experience were relatively low. After adjusting for confounders, the odds of medication errors directly observed by nurses were 65% lower than the odds of medication errors not directly detected. In clinical practice, nurses must be educated about errors in reporting depending on their degree of clinical experience.