Categorizing Medication Errors

In 1996, the Council realized the need for a standardized categorization of errors. In October 2022, the NCC MERP revised the Medication Error Index that classifies an error according to the severity of the outcome. It is hoped that the index will help health care practitioners and institutions to track medication errors in a consistent, systematic manner.

The index considers factors such as whether the error reached the patient and, if the patient was harmed, and to what degree. The Council encourages the use of the index in all health care delivery settings and by researchers and vendors of medication error tracking software. The ISMP Medication Errors Reporting Program has implemented this index for use in its database.

Medication Error Index

NCC MERP Index for Categorizing Medication Errors
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NCC MERP Index for Categorizing Medication Errors Algorithm
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Reference: Hartwig, S.C., Denger, S.D., & Schneider, P.J. (1991) Severity-indexed, incident report-based medication error-reporting program. Am J Hosp Pharm, 48. 2611-2616

Adopted

07/16/1996 - 12:00

Revised

02/20/2001 - 12:00

NAN Alert

The National Alert Network (NAN) publishes the alerts from the National Medication Errors Reporting Program. NAN encourages the sharing and reporting of medication errors, so that lessons learned can be used to increase the safety of the medication use system.

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Types of Medication Errors

Medication Error Index