The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics : JPPT : the official journal of PPAG
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J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther · Oct 2010
Computerized pharmaceutical algorithm reduces medication administration errors during simulated resuscitations.
Medication errors involving intravenous medications continue to be a significant problem, particularly in the pediatric population due to the high rate of point-of-care and weight-adjusted dosing. The pharmaceutical algorithm computerized calculator (pac2) assists in converting physician medication orders to correct volumes and rates of administration for intravenous medications. This study was designed to assess the efficacy of the pac2 in simulated clinical scenarios of point-of-care dosing. ⋯ The pac2 significantly improved the performance of drug calculations by pediatric and critical care nurses during simulated clinical scenarios designed to mimic point-of-care dosing. These results suggest that the pac2 addresses an area of safety vulnerability for point-of-care dosing practices and could be a useful addition to a hospital's overall program to minimize medication errors.
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J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther · Oct 2010
Pilot comparison of three cardiopulmonary resuscitation medication dosing strategies in overweight children.
Dose calculations using three variations of patient weight estimates (actual body weight [ABW], ideal body weight [IBW], and the Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape [BPET, a length-based weight estimation tool]) were compared to administered doses of cardiopulmonary resuscitation medications in overweight and obese children to assess for differences in dose. ⋯ Dosing variations were observed when the dose received was compared to dosing using three variants of patient weight estimates. The largest dosing differences were observed upon comparison of the administered dose versus the dose recommended by the BPET.