A system for assessing potential for harm of detected medication errors associated with delivering medication to a patient, comprising: a patient care device for delivering medication to a patient; means for entering values for medication administration parameters to program the patient care device to deliver medication to a patient, wherein a first memory associated with the patient care device in which is stored medication administration guidelines representing acceptable values for the medication administration parameters; a first processor operatively connected to the first memory and configured to compare the values for medication administration parameters to the acceptable values and indicate when a medication error representing a discrepancy between the values for medication administration parameters and the acceptable values is detected; said system being characterized by a second memory, comprising a harm index database including harm index values representing potential for causing harm to a patient associated with a plurality of medication errors, and wherein the first processor is further configured to determine an overall harm index value for the medication error by combining the harm index values associated with harm index parameters corresponding to the medication error stored in the harm index database, wherein a harm index value represents a score or a rating according to the risk of a risk category associated with a drug to be delivered to the patient; and means for reporting the overall harm index value to a user, wherein the harm index database further includes a plurality of harm index parameters relating to a medication administration, each harm index parameter being associated with a harm index value, wherein the harm index parameters include a drug type parameter, a drug dosage parameter, a level of care parameter and a parameter for detectability of the medication error, and wherein the drug type parameter indicates a potential of a drug for causing harm to a patient when incorrectly prescribed, the dosage parameter indicates a potential for causing harm based on a dosage of the drug, the level of care parameter defines a risk for various patient care levels at a healthcare facility and the parameter for detectability of the medication error defines a likelihood that the medication error would have been detected by a care-giver before a harmful adverse drug event occurs, and provides harm index values based on the amount of monitoring provided to the patient. a patient care device for delivering medication to a patient; means for entering values for medication administration parameters to program the patient care device to deliver medication to a patient, wherein a first memory associated with the patient care device in which is stored medication administration guidelines representing acceptable values for the medication administration parameters; a first processor operatively connected to the first memory and configured to compare the values for medication administration parameters to the acceptable values and indicate when a medication error representing a discrepancy between the values for medication administration parameters and the acceptable values is detected; said system being characterized by a second memory, comprising a harm index database including harm index values representing potential for causing harm to a patient associated with a plurality of medication errors, and wherein the first processor is further configured to determine an overall harm index value for the medication error by combining the harm index values associated with harm index parameters corresponding to the medication error stored in the harm index database, wherein a harm index value represents a score or a rating according to the risk of a risk category associated with a drug to be delivered to the patient; and means for reporting the overall harm index value to a user, wherein the harm index database further includes a plurality of harm index parameters relating to a medication administration, each harm index parameter being associated with a harm index value, wherein the harm index parameters include a drug type parameter, a drug dosage parameter, a level of care parameter and a parameter for detectability of the medication error, and wherein the drug type parameter indicates a potential of a drug for causing harm to a patient when incorrectly prescribed, the dosage parameter indicates a potential for causing harm based on a dosage of the drug, the level of care parameter defines a risk for various patient care levels at a healthcare facility and the parameter for detectability of the medication error defines a likelihood that the medication error would have been detected by a care-giver before a harmful adverse drug event occurs, and provides harm index values based on the amount of monitoring provided to the patient.