reducing medication errors through multi-disciplinary collaboration: a quality improvement initiative

Introduction:prescribing and medication administration errors are common themes in pediatrics. there is growing international evidence that the regular occurrence of such errors carries a high potential for unintended harm to patients. within our trust, a high percentage of reported pediatric incidents relate to medication errors. the most-commonly reported themes were incorrect dosing and omission of regular medication. the aim of our project was to reduce medication errors by at least 10%. materials and methods: to achieve our aim, we devised a structured educational program was devised by a tripartite alliance (nursing, medicine, pharmacology) and rolled out to nursing staff and medical trainees. an initial prospective audit was undertaken, followed by two pdsa (plan-do-study-act) cycles. results: following the intervention, the percentage of medication errors decreased from 89.3% to 12.1%, with a comparative 51.3% decrease in significant errors and a complete elimination of serious/potentially lethal errors. conclusion:in view of our results, we hope that tripartite alliances may be used as a model for inter-professional collaboration across healthcare systems.