A hospital group in the United States has issued a safety alert aimed at preventing hospital mistakes in medication administered to children.

The alert comes just days after a study published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics and led by Paul Sharek of Stanford University’s Packard Children’s Hospital showed that medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses, and bad drug reactions harm roughly one in 15 children, or more than 540,000 annually, while being hospitalized, a number far higher than earlier estimates.

The alert coming from the Joint Commission, an independent organization that accredits most of the nation’s hospitals, calls on hospitals to weight children in kilograms when they’re admitted, instead of pounds.

Weighing in kilograms is the standard for calculating proper doses, but some hospitals still weigh them in pounds, increasing the risk of a doubled-dose, said Dr. Matthew Scanlon assistant professor of pediatrics-critical care at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and a member of the Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Advisory Group, the Associated Press reports. Dr. Scanlon helped write the alert.

Moreover, the alert says hospitals should clearly mark products that have been repackaged from adult formulations for use with children. Also, hospitals should keep adult medications away from pediatric care units.

“This is strongest statement on record to date that children have unique safety needs. This is another important step in increasing awareness around the unique needs of children,” Dr. Scanlon said.

This alert is a much-needed reminder that pediatric errors in hospitals are avoidable, but somehow still common. However, some changes would modify the error ratio greatly.

According to Dr. Peter Angood, the vice president of Joint Commission, the alert is a significant step in avoiding medical errors when it comes to treating children. “We can and we’re obligated to do better. We really do owe it to those patients who depend on us.”

The study on medical errors affecting children and also the alert have once again sparked interest in the accidental life-threatening heparin overdoses in a Los Angeles hospital, administered to Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins last November.

Actually, the actor praised the study and encouraged parents to ask questions and stay in-tune with what their kids are being given in hospital.

“Every time a caregiver comes into the room, I would check and ask the nurse what they’re giving them and why,” Quaid said quoted by the AP.