Occurrence of Potential Adverse Drug Events from Prescribing Errors in a Pediatric Intensive and High Dependency Unit in Hong Kong: An Observational Study

Background Critically ill pediatric patients are considered at high risk for medication errors. Although much research focuses on the actual errors, equally important are medication errors that, although intercepted, carried the potential for an adverse drug event. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of prescribing errors and potential adverse drug events (pADEs) in a local pediatric intensive and critical care unit (PICU) in Hong Kong. Our secondary objective was to determine the type of error, nature of medication involved and the time of error occurrence.