Impact of a Comprehensive Safety Initiative on Patient-controlled Analgesia Errors

BACKGROUND: Adverse drug events related to patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) place patients at risk. METHODS: We reviewed all critical incident reports at three tertiary care hospitals dated January 1, 2002, to February 28, 2009. In this longitudinal cohort study, critical incidents attributable to PCA errors were identified, and each incident was investigated. A safety intervention was implemented in February 2006 and involved new PCA pumps, …