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Children with cancer at risk for medication errors

Accreditation Connection, May 28, 2007

Errors in medications associated with cancer are occurring too frequently in children, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, reports Reuters.

Children often receive the wrong dose of chemotherapy or are given the drug at the wrong time, according to Reuters.

A lack of an established standard for administering these drugs is partly to blame, researchers say, as is the differences in weight. The study looked at 310 errors of children receiving chemotherapy. Of those errors, 85% affected the patient and 16% caused harm that required extra care.

There is no easy solution, the researchers say, but computerized dosing is a step in the right direction.

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