A Cell-Phone Medication Error eHealth App for Managing Safety in Chronically Ill Young Patients at Home: A...

Area of Science:

• Pediatric pharmacology
• Health informatics
• Patient safety

Background:

• Medication errors (MEs) in children discharged home with chronic diseases are understudied.
• Home medication safety for this population is a significant concern.
• Existing research often focuses on mixed pediatric/adult populations or acute conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate medication errors (MEs) in children and adolescents with chronic diseases after hospital discharge.
• To assess the feasibility and utility of a cell-phone eHealth app for parents to record MEs.
• To identify risk factors associated with MEs in the home environment.

Main Methods:

• A 1-year prospective study involving parents of children with chronic diseases discharged from a tertiary hospital.
• Parents were trained to use a tailored cell-phone eHealth app to record medication errors.
• Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine the medication error incidence rate ratio (IRR).

Main Results:

• Of 310 enrolled parents, 194 used the app, recording 41 MEs across all drug management phases.
• The overall ME incidence rate ratio (IRR) was 0.46 errors per child.
• Infants (<1 year) had the highest ME risk (IRR 1.69), and children discharged from cardiology showed a significantly higher ME IRR (3.66).

Conclusions:

• Children under one year with chronic diseases face the highest risk of medication errors at home.
• Children with heart conditions of any age are at a significantly increased risk for home medication errors.
• A tailored eHealth app is a user-friendly tool for monitoring MEs, and clinical teams should identify specific risks at discharge to improve home medication safety.