The lede:

A new study finding a much higher rate of pediatric hospital adverse drug events than previously thought sparked the Joint Commission last month to issue an alert advising physicians and hospitals how to reduce such mistakes.

About 11% of child patients experience adverse drug events during hospitalizations, according to an April study in Pediatrics — a rate nearly five times higher than in previous studies.

Despite the higher rate, the review of 960 randomly selected charts from 12 children’s hospitals showed that more than three-quarters of the medication side effects were unpreventable. But the study said 17.8% of side effects could have been identified earlier, and 16.8% could have been mitigated more effectively.

The whole shebang.