title: Computerized surveillance for adverse drug events in a pediatric hospital.
abstract: There are limited data on adverse drug event rates in pediatrics. The authors describe the implementation and evaluation of an automated surveillance system modified to detect adverse drug events (ADEs) in pediatric patients. The authors constructed an automated surveillance system to screen admissions to a large pediatric hospital. Potential ADEs identified by the system were reviewed by medication safety pharmacists and a physician and scored for causality and severity. Over the 6 month study period, 6,889 study children were admitted to the hospital for a total of 40,250 patient-days. The ADE surveillance system generated 1226 alerts, which yielded 160 true ADEs. This represents a rate of 2.3 ADEs per 100 admissions or 4 per 1,000 patient-days. Medications most frequently implicated were diuretics, antibiotics, immunosuppressants, narcotics, and anticonvulsants. The composite positive predictive value of the ADE surveillance system was 13%. Automated surveillance can be an effective method for detecting ADEs in hospitalized children.
authors: St. Louis Children's Hospital, One Children's Place, St Louis, MO 63110, USA. kilbridge_p@kids.wustl.edu
authors: Peter M
authors: PM
authors: Kilbridge
authors: Laura A
authors: LA
authors: Noirot
authors: Richard M
authors: RM
authors: Reichley
authors: Kathleen M
authors: KM
authors: Berchelmann
authors: Cortney
authors: C
authors: Schneider
authors: Kevin M
authors: KM
authors: Heard
authors: Miranda
authors: M
authors: Nelson
authors: Thomas C
authors: TC
authors: Bailey
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D002648:Child; D005103:Expert Systems; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008923:Missouri; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016730:Program Development; D014584:User-Computer Interface