A classification for adverse drug events

Abstract There is considerable evidence that a large number of patients suffer adverse events arising from their health-care management. A significant proportion of these iatrogenic injuries occur as a result of medication errors. Before prevention strategies can be developed, it is necessary to understand the types of errors that are occurring. In order to set priorities, it is necessary to identify the frequency and impact of the various types of medication errors. To fully investigate medication incidents, it is necessary to classify the information in a way that allows the frequencies, causes and contributing factors to be analysed. The development of a sub-branch of the ‘Generic Occurrence Classification’, specific to medication incidents, allows this analysis to occur.