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I'm Rob Logan, Ph.D. senior staff National Library of Medicine substituting this week for Donald Lindberg, M.D, the Director of the U.S. National of Medicine.

Here is what's new this week in MedlinePlus.

To listen to Dr. Lindberg's comments, click here

The frequency of drug-related harmful events for hospitalized children is much higher than previous estimates, according to a recent study published in Pediatrics.

A team of five researchers found a rate of 11 drug-related harmful events occurred for every 100 hospitalized children they assessed. In a previous study, the rate of drug-related harmful events was estimated to be about two per 100 hospitalized children.

MSNBC reported the new estimate means about 7.3 percent of hospitalized children, or about 540,000 kids a year, experience a drug-related harmful event, which usually stems from a medical mix-up, an accidental overdose, or a bad drug reaction.

In one of the study's more compelling findings, staff members within the hospitals that were surveyed for the study reported less than four percent of the drug-related problems detected by the researchers.

Medication errors in hospitalized children received attention in the U.S. during last year's holiday season when actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twin daughters received a serious, but not fatal, overdose of medications.

Similar to the Quaid twins, the current study found none of the medication errors were fatal. None of the affected kids received permanent health damage as a result of the mistakes uncovered in what the authors believe is the most exhaustive research about children's hospital medication errors ever conducted.

Most of the medication errors occurred when children received pain killing drugs. Most mistakes were either overdoses, or an allergic reaction to the medication.

The authors, who are mostly from children's hospitals in California, note the study's revised estimates are based on a more thorough analysis of patient records than previous research. The study's revised assessment of children's patient records follows a protocol established by the U.S. Institute of Medicine's report about inadvertent medical mistakes, which was published in 1999.

The procedure tracks 15 triggers, such as antidotes for drug overdoses, suspicious side effects, and unusual lab tests to detect drug errors. The study assessed the randomly selected medical charts of 960 children from 12 children's hospitals nationwide in 2002. If the trigger occurred on a child's chart, the researchers conducted an in-depth review of the child's care.

Previous research was less comprehensive and did not review the connection between a trigger and a young patient's specific medical chart. As a result, the authors believe the study's findings are a more reliable barometer of the actual problems in the nation's hospitals. However, they acknowledge their sample did not include community hospitals which treat many children.

The authors conclude they hope the research lays the groundwork to reassess current hospital procedures and will foster steps to reduce errors and improve medication safety for young, hospitalized patients.

Within MedlinePlus' children's health health topic page is a section - provided by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality – that contributes 20 useful tips for parents and caregivers to prevent kid's medication errors.

Among the tips for parents and caregivers are:

• Make sure your child's doctors know all the medications, vitamins and supplements your child is taking. This includes all prescription and over-the-counter drugs
• Tell your child's doctor, nurse, or other health care provider if your child has any allergies and how he/she normally responds to medicines
• When a child's doctor writes a prescription, make sure you can read it
• Always ask a pharmacist if the medicine is the same as a doctor prescribed
• Ask specific questions about the medication, such as: its name, its intended use, the appropriate dose for the weight of the child who is a patient, how often the medicine should be taken -- and at what interval, what are known side effects, can this medicine be taken with other drugs and supplements, what food, drink or activities should be stopped or curtailed when taking the medicine, and when is an improvement in a child's condition expected to occur?

The website provides several other tips for medicines, and includes helpful information for hospital stays, surgery, and furnishes some other constructive suggestions.

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