What You Can do to Prevent an Error in Your Child’s Medication

Seeing your child distressed and in pain hits you right where it hurts as a parent.  You’d do anything to see her running around feeling better again.  And it’s every parent’s worst nightmare when the very medication you’re giving your child to cure them is actually doing harm.

There’s potential for an error to be made at any point in the medication process, right from diagnosis of a problem, to the ordering, transcription and dispensation of medication.  If a child has been harmed through medical error or misdiagnosis, you have every right to bring a medical malpractice claim against the doctor or paediatric specialist concerned.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) lists the three most common types of pediatric malpractice claims as misreading of meningitis symptoms, misdiagnosis of appendicitis and errors in medication.

Medication errors are the cause of more than five percent of pediatric malpractice cases. An error in medication can happen in one of four ways:

• The incorrect medication is ordered (56% of errors)
• The wrong dose, timing or technique is involved when the medication is given (34% of errors)
• An error in the transcription of the medication order (6% of errors)
• The wrong strength or amount of medication, or the wrong medication, is dispensed (4% of errors)

AAP statistics show that when medication errors occur, physicians are to blame most often at 69% of the time, nurses 13% of the time and pharmacies 8% of the time.

That’s not to say that our doctors and specialists aren’t taking good care of our children.  Thankfully, paediatric medical negligence claims represent only 2% of the total number of claims but medication errors happen more often than you would think! Find out how often they happen, by taking the quiz below, created by Patient Claim Line, a team of medical solicitors.

Nothing can really compensate you or your child for the anguish and stress caused by an error made in the process of your child’s diagnosis and treatment. The only thing to do is to make sure such a thing never happens in the first place.  Of course it’s impossible to be everywhere at once, but there are many positive, concrete actions that you can take as a parent to prevent an error in your child’s medication.

Be an active player on your child’s health care team

Research demonstrates that parents who get involved in their child’s health care are instrumental in achieving better outcomes for their child. You’re the one who knows your child best. Sharing your knowledge is critical. Being an active participant means listening, advocating and getting involved in decisions affecting your child’s health.

Make sure you’ve got the full story

A parent is the one who knows all the details of their child’s medical issues.  You’re also the one who is responsible for passing the full picture onto doctors and specialists so they understand the context fully.   Ensure that your child’s doctors and specialists are aware of:

• Your child’s medical history
• All the medicines they are taking, including prescription, over-the-counter medicines, and dietary supplements.
• Your child’s accurate weight, so they can prescribe the right amount of medication for the child’s size.
• Any allergies/ reactions to medicines.

Make sure you can read the prescription

Many prescriptions are still written by hand.  When you get a prescription for your child, ensure you can read it before leaving the doctors.  If in doubt – ask! When you’re clear on the medicine and amount, you can be confident when checking you’ve received what was prescribed.

Get clear on the details

Ensure you’re clear on the details of your child’s medicines.  When any medicine is prescribed, and when you receive them from the pharmacist or hospital, find out:

• Exactly what the medicine is for
• The name of the medicine
• That the dosage is appropriate for your child’s weight
• How often should your child take it, what time of day, and how long for
• What side effects are likely
• What to do if they happen
• If the medicine is safe for your child to take with other medicines or dietary supplements
• What food, drink, or activities your child should avoid while taking the medicine
• When you should expect an improvement in symptoms

Understand all the instructions

Make sure you ask if you’re unsure about the instructions on your child’s medicine labels.  Medicine instructions can be hard to understand. It’s thankfully rare these days, but some instructions still include Latin medical phrases (e.g. ‘per diem’/ ‘per day’).  Other medicine labels have ambiguous instructions. For example, does ‘three times daily’ mean on waking, on sleeping and at lunchtime, or should you wake your child at night to ensure the dosage is correctly spaced?

Measure the dosage accurately

Your pharmacist will be able to recommend the best device to measure your child’s liquid medicine.  Special devices, like marked oral syringes, help people to measure the right dose.

Check with the pharmacist to make sure you understand how to use it properly, too.  Research shows that many people aren’t aware of the correct way to measure liquid medicines. A household teaspoon should not be used, for example, because they often don’t hold a true teaspoon of liquid.

Make sure your child takes the right amount

It can also be challenging to make sure your child ingests the right amount of medication.  Your pharmacist can show you handy tricks to administer it effectively.

Get written information on possible side effects

You’re not expecting anything to go wrong, but forewarned is forearmed.  Get written information about the potential side effects of your child’s medicine.  This knowledge will keep you calm and informed so if a side effect does occur, you’ll know how to recognise it and what to do.  Recent research has found that written information about medicines can help people recognize problem side effects. If your child experiences side effects, get in touch with your doctor and pharmacist straight away.