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Table 1 Classification of medication errors

From: Chemotherapeutic errors in hospitalised cancer patients: attributable damage and extra costs

Type of medication errors

Definition

Prescription errors

 

Error linked to the choice of antineoplastic regimen

Difference of antineoplastic regimen compared to the previous cycle or the multidisciplinary medical decision

Dose error

Under- or overdosage of more than 5% of antineoplastic drugs (calculation mistake or omission of dose reduction when dosage adjustment was required)

Incomplete prescription

Missing data on the prescription, such as patient identity, anthropometric or biological data, drug dose, prescriber's signature, and date of administration

Cancellation of medical approval

Misinterpretation of the clinical status of the patient, who was not able to receive chemotherapy

Pharmaceutical errors

Errors in pharmaceutical analysis (i.e., pharmacist-generated mistakes or failure to detect prescription errors), data entry in the pharmaceutical software, preparation, storage, or dispensing errors

Drug administration errors

Any discrepancy between the physicians' chemotherapy orders and drug delivery to the patient, such as timing errors, omission, unordered drug, wrong route, wrong patient, deteriorated drug, and technical error in administration (e.g., wrong infusion flow rate)