Objective To explore the effect of applying a warning program for medication errors based on failure mode and effect analysis in quality inspection rounds performed by head nurses. Methods By analyzing the root cause of medication errors and learning from the failure model and effect analysis, we formed a red alert and yellow alert for medication errors and embedded then into key quality inspection contents for head nurses to make a quality inspection round. The counts of early warning triggers detected, risk coefficients of early warning items and the frequency of medication errors before and after implementation were compared. Results After the implementation of the warning program, the number of red and yellow warning triggers detected was significantly higher than before implementation, while the occurrence of 5 warning items,the detection of 3 items, the risk coefficients of 7 warning items were lower significantly (P<0.05, P<0.01)，and the occurrence of medication errors had dropped. Conclusion The application of red-yellow early warning of medication errors in inspection rounds performed by head nurses can effectively improve the precision of inspection rounds and help implement of measures that can promote patient safety.