The medication error index, developed by the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting & Prevention (NCCMER), consists of 9 medication error categories, ranging in severity from A (the potential for error existed) to I (the error resulted in patient death).

Table 1. Medication Error Index for Categorizing Errors^[8]

Error	Category	Result
No error	A	Circumstances or events that have the capacity to create error
Error, no harm	B	An error occurred but the medication did not reach the patient.
	C	An error occurred that reached the patient but did not cause the patient harm.
	D	An error occurred that resulted in the need for increased patient monitoring but no patient harm.
Error, harm	E	An error occurred that resulted in the need for treatment or intervention and caused temporary patient harm.
	F	An error occurred that resulted in initial or prolonged hospitalization and caused temporary patient harm.
	G	An error occurred that resulted in permanent patient harm.
	H	An error occurred that resulted in a near-death event (eg, anaphylaxis, cardiac arrest).
Error, death	I	An error occurred that resulted in patient death.