title: [Medication errors in two Brazilian hospitals].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine medication errors in a public and in a private hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional. 638 dosis opportunities for errors (administered dosis + omitted dosis) were assessed in January, 2005. Medication error was defined as any given dose different from a legible prescription on patient chart. The error rate was calculated by the following equation: number of dosis/error opportunities. The errors were classified according to the categories: omission, unordered dose, extra-dose, wrong dose, wrong route, wrong form, wrong time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 638 opportunities of error, 209 (32,9%) were wrong in some way. When wrong time errors were excluded, this rate decreased to 156 (25%). The most frequent types of errors were omission and unordered dosis, 67 (10,5%) and 65 (10,2%), respectively. There was no significant difference on the total error rate according to the type of hospital (public or private).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The public hospital showed a double-fold unordered dose error rate as compared to the private hospital. Inversely, the private hospital showed a double-fold wrong time error rate than the public hospital.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Farmacia, Hospital Universitario Profesor Edgar Santos, Instituto de Salud Colectiva, Salvador, Bahía, Brasil. lindemb@ufa.br
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loureiro
authors.forename: M G G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*