Children given medicine wrong every 8 minutes

Parents and guardians incorrectly administered medication to 696,937 children under six years of age between 2002 and 2012 – an average of 63,358 a year, or one every eight minutes – according to a study published in Pediatrics. The most common error was double-dosing. “What typically happens is, the mother goes in and gives the children a dose, then cares for another kid or makes dinner. The father comes in and wants to help and gives the child a dose. And then they talk, and they found they double-dosed their child,” director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and co-author Henry Spiller told Fox News. “Initially as clinicians, we noticed that we were seeing more of these in our own center and in our own practice,” Spiller added. “We pulled the national data to see how large of a problem this is.”

Other errors found in the analysis of 50 U.S. poison control centers in the National Poison Database System included giving incorrect dosages and confusing measurement units which parents blamed on poor labeling and difficulty reading measurements on pre-provided cups for liquid medicine. The CDC and others health experts recommend standardizing measurements for liquid medicine to millimeters as opposed to the more subjective teaspoons or tablespoons, as well as putting zeroes before decimal points on labels. “The science on how to label and package and dispense and administer medicines— it’s not that sophisticated, it’s not that fancy,” medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center, chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and study co-author Marcel Casavant said. “It’s disappointing to see that these errors are still happening. The measurements are still confusing; it’s hard to read these. It shows there’s still an awful lot of room for manufacturers to make an improvement.”

There are other instances, however, in which parents are fully responsible. For example, giving medication to the wrong child. In fact, serious complications such as cardiac problems occurred when a stimulant (e.g. an ADHD drug) was given to a child for whom it was not prescribed. While only 0.7% of cases of out-of-hospital medication errors led to serious medical outcomes, there were 25 deaths. Otherwise, most mistakes involve liquid formula, tablets, capsules and caplets of ibuprofen, Tylenol, cough and cold medicine, and asthma medications. Furthermore, 20% of the cases didn’t result in clinical effects and in 73% if the calls to poison control centers there was no follow-up, implying that there was no need for further medical assistance.

Nonetheless, medical director of the Carolinas Poison Center in North Carolina Michael Beuhler – who was not involved in the study – urged parents not to hesitate to call poison centers, which are independent from the government, meaning that parents shouldn’t worry about law enforcement intervention unless the child is endangered. Additionally, the caller’s personal information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Beuhler also told Fox News that searching for remedies on the Internet instead of calling a poison center can worsen the situation rather than improve it.

Related Read:

American children given wrong medication every 8 minutes: report.

Study: People makes a staggering number of mistakes when giving medicine to children.

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