Medication prescribing errors among hospitalized pediatric patients at Nekemte Referral Hospital, western Ethiopia: cross-sectional study.

Of 384 pediatric patients included in the study, 241 (63%) were males and 116 (30.21%) of them were aged between 1-3 years. About 241 (62.76%) of the patients were treated based on empirical diagnosis and only 10 (2.60%) pediatrics had co-morbid disease. The most category of medication prescribing error was dosing error 251 (48.6%) followed by incorrect drug selection 98 (19.0%). Being critically ill (AOR = 5.31, 95% CI = 1.80-12.31, p = 0.003), route of administration via IV (AOR = 3.98, 95% CI = 1.85-11.15, p = 0.011) and via IV + IM route (AOR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.05-9.25, p = 0.045) as well as 4-6 medications per patient (AOR = 3.10, 95% CI = 3.43-12.42, p = 0.012) and > 6 medications per patient (AOR = 7.23, 95% CI = 3.91-21.45, p < 0.001) were independent predictors of medication prescribing errors. Antibiotics were the most common classes of drugs responsible for prescribing errors.