Medication Error Rate
Number of medication errors per 1,000 patient days
What is Medication Error Rate?
Medication error rate is the number of medication errors per thousand patient days. It shows how safely medicines are prescribed, dispensed and given.
Medication errors can seriously harm patients, so tracking them helps focus safety improvements.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Operations & Supply Chain
- Sub-function
- Patient Safety
- Industry
- Healthcare
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- Risk
- Unit
- rate/1K pt days
- Measurement frequency
- Monthly
- Formula
- (Number of medication errors / Total patient days) × 1,000
How to calculate it
Divide the number of medication errors by total patient days, and multiply by 1,000.
For example, if 18 errors occurred over 9,000 patient days, the rate is 2 per 1,000 patient days.
Encourage open reporting, since a higher reported rate may reflect a better reporting culture rather than worse practice.
Where it is used
Improving patient safety
Spot risks.
Targeting training and systems
Fix weak steps.
Meeting safety standards
Report results.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Rising reports can be a sign of a healthy reporting culture.
- Focus on learning, not blame.
- Track severity as well as number.
More Operations & Supply Chain kpi library
Build better plans, faster
Join the waitlist for early access to curated insights, flexible templates, and rapid iteration across strategy, planning, and project management.