Annals of emergency medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Color-Coded Prefilled Medication Syringes Decrease Time to Delivery and Dosing Error in Simulated Emergency Department Pediatric Resuscitations.
The Institute of Medicine has called on the US health care system to identify and reduce medical errors. Unfortunately, medication dosing errors remain commonplace and may result in potentially life-threatening outcomes, particularly for pediatric patients when dosing requires weight-based calculations. Novel medication delivery systems that may reduce dosing errors resonate with national health care priorities. Our goal was to evaluate novel, prefilled medication syringes labeled with color-coded volumes corresponding to the weight-based dosing of the Broselow Tape, compared with conventional medication administration, in simulated pediatric emergency department (ED) resuscitation scenarios. ⋯ A novel color-coded, prefilled syringe decreased time to medication administration and significantly reduced critical dosing errors by emergency physician and nurse teams during simulated pediatric ED resuscitations.