Table 1 Definitions of key concepts
Key concept | Definition |
|---|---|
Medication error (ME) | ‘Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient or consumer’ [23]. Both ME reports that occurred to the patient and near misses intercepted before reaching the patient were included. The study sample did not include adverse drug reactions from an appropriate medication management and use (MMU) process [24] |
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System | In the ATC classification system, drugs are divided into 14 main groups and four sub-levels depending on the target organ or group of organs and their chemical, pharmacological and therapeutic properties [25] |
High-alert medications | High-alert medications are drugs with a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when used in error [9]. Although mistakes may or may not be more common with these drugs, the consequences of an error are usually more devastating to patients |