Prescribing practices at Dunedin Hospital have been improved since a three-month study in 2002 of medication errors for children in Dunedin Hospital which found 700 errors involving 500 patients.
A report published in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal says nobody died or suffered long-lasting effects during the study and the majority of the errors were harmless.
However, some were potentially harmful or resulted in some degree of harm.
The research was carried out in Dunedin Hospital's Queen Mary Maternity Centre, neo-natal intensive care unit and paediatric ward.
The lead author of the study, Dr Desiree Kunac, of the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago, said the study found error rates in medicating were similar to those found in overseas studies.
Not all the harmful events noted were associated with errors, the research found. About half were due to adverse drug reactions.
Efforts to prevent errors should target how doses were prescribed and antibiotics used (particularly when administered intravenously).
Co-author of the study Associate Prof David Reith, who works at the hospital as a paediatrician, said the research had been used to strengthen classifications in the system used to report adverse incidents across all services at both Dunedin and Wakari hospitals.
When and where errors were occurring had to be identified so they could be avoided in future - "an ostrich approach just isn't good enough'', he said.
The changes, implemented during the past five years, had shown where the systems could be improved.
Also, the research had led to the University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine widening its prescribing training for medical students to include case studies and a series of presentations on safe prescribing.
The researchers praised Dunedin Hospital's co-operation with the study, the first of its kind in New Zealand.
