We aimed to establish the frequency and nature of drug administration error in anaesthesia
(a significant subset of error in medicine) at two hospitals. Anaesthetists were asked to return
a study form anonymously for every anaesthetic, indicating whether or not a drug
administration error or pre-error (defined as any incident with potential to become an error)
had occurred. Further details were sought if the response was affirmative. From 10806
anaesthetics, 7794 study forms were returned, representing response rates of 80% from …

Background Throughout the world, drug administration error remains a known and
significant threat to patients undergoing anaesthesia. Estimates of the extent of the problem
vary, but few are based on large prospectively collected datasets. Furthermore, little is
known about whether differences in work culture are important in error rates. Methods A
prospective incident monitoring study was conducted at a large tertiary hospital in C hina to
estimate the frequency of drug administration error during anaesthesia. Anaesthetists were …