Researchers found the use of video telemedicine to conduct consultations for acutely ill children in rural and community emergency departments (EDs) does not reduce medication errors when compared to consultations done by telephone, as presented in JAMA Network Open. A randomized trial across 15 community and rural EDs that examined 696 cases of acutely ill children found no statistically significant differences in physician-related medication errors between cases leveraging telephone consultations when compared to cases leveraging video telemedicine consultations. In the study analysis, pharmacists reviewed patient records to evaluate physician-related medication errors using a validated instrument. At least 1 medication error occurred for 87 patients, which breaks down to 20 of the 159 patients in the group using telephone consultations and 67 of the 537 patients in the group using video telemedicine consultation.
Cross check: Medication errors included a wrong dose, wrong or inappropriate medication for the patient’s condition, wrong route of administration, wrong dosage form, or errors regarding patient information, such as a known allergy.