title: Medication dispensing errors at a public pediatric hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  assess the safety of medication dispensing processes through the dispensing error rate.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study carried out at a pharmaceutical service of a pediatric hospital in Espírito Santo, Brazil. Data collection was performed between August and September 2006, totaling 2620 prescribed medication doses. Any deviation from the medical prescription in dispensing medication was considered a dispensing error. THE CATEGORIES OF MEDICATION ERRORS WERE: content, labeling, and documentation errors. The dispensing error rate was computed by dividing the number of errors by the total of dispensed doses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From the 300 identified errors, 262 (87.3 %) were content errors. The rate of errors in the labeling and documentation categories was 33 (11%) and 5 (1.7%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The total dispensing error rate was higher than rates reported in international studies. The most frequent category was "content error".
authors.affiliation: Bahia Federal University Faculty of Pharmacy, Brazil. lindemb@ufba.br
authors.forename: Lindemberg Assunção
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Cleidenete
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valli
authors.forename: Angra Pimentel
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Alvarenga
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*