Abstract Children are uniquely susceptible to medication errors because of the need to individualize pediatric doses based on body weight. Consequently, dosing errors represent the most common type of medication error in children. Efforts to improve the drug delivery process have reduced medication errors;however, these efforts are of little use without an accurate patient weight. Pediatric emergency and trauma settings represent a unique clinical environment where accurate patient weights are rarely available. Currently available weight estimation strategies are suitable only for children of average age and weight. Use of these strategies in children that are underweight or overweight/obese can result 2- to 3-fold over- or under-doses which can be dangerous and potentially life-threatening. This study will examine the speed, accuracy and precision with which emergency responders can determine weight using a newly developed weight estimation strategy (the Mercy TAPE) that has proven to perform robustly across a wide range of patient ages and body compositions. The method will be compared with the most commonly used weight estimation strategies under the hypothesis: The Mercy TAPE can significantly improve the accuracy and precision of pediatric weight estimation among Emergency Department nurses and First Responders without sacrificing time.

U01FD004249

2011-09-15

2012-09-14