| CONSIDER: |
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In any given week four out of every five U.S. adults will use prescription medicines, over-the-counter drugs, or dietary supplements of some sort, and nearly one-third of adults will take five or more different medications. |
| CONSIDER: |
Most of the time medications help, or at least they cause no harm, but sometimes they do injure the person taking them. Some of these "adverse drug events [ADEs]," as injuries due to medication are generally called, are inevitable. |
| CONSIDER: |
The more powerful a medicine is, the more likely it is to have harmful side effects, for instance. |
| CONSIDER: |
Sometimes the harm is caused by an error in prescribing or taking the medication, and these damages can be prevented. |
| CONSIDER: |
In hospitals, errors are common during every step of the medication process from procuring the drug, prescribing it, dispensing it, administering it, and monitoring its impact -- but they occur most frequently when medicines are prescribed and administered. |
| Resource: |
Recommendations to Reduce Medication Errors Associated with Verbal Medication Orders and Prescriptions (NCCMERP) |
| Resource: |
Recommendations to Enhance Accuracy of Administration of Medications (NCCMERP) |
| Resource: |
Recommendations to Enhance Accuracy of Dispensing Medications (NCCMERP) |
| CONSIDER: |
When all types of errors are taken into account, a hospital patient can expect on average to be subjected to more than one medication error each day. However, substantial variations in error rates are found across facilities. |
| Resource: |
Things You Should Know Before You Enter the Hospital |
| CONSIDER: |
Confusion caused by similar drug names accounts for up to 25 percent of all errors reported to the Medication Error Reporting Program operated cooperatively by U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). In addition, labeling and packaging issues were cited as the cause of 33 percent of errors, including 30 percent of fatalities, reported to the program. |
| CONSIDER: |
One study estimated 380,000 preventable Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) in hospitals each year, another estimated 450,000. Both estimates may be underestimates. |
| CONSIDER: |
One study calculates that 800,000 preventable ADEs occur each year in long-term care facilities. |
| CONSIDER: |
Another study finds that among outpatient Medicare patients there occur 530,000 preventable ADEs each year - probably also an under estimate. |
| CONSIDER: |
The IOM concludes that there are at least 1.5 million preventable ADEs that occur in the United States each year - and it may even be much higher. |
| The Costs of Medication Errors |
| CONSIDER: |
One study found that each preventable ADE that took place in a hospital added about $8,750 (in 2006 dollars) to the cost of the hospital stay. Assuming 400,000 of these events each year - a conservative estimate -- the total annual cost would be $3.5 billion in this one group. |
| CONSIDER: |
Another study looked at preventable ADEs in Medicare enrollees aged 65 and older and found an annual cost of $887 million for treating medication errors in this group. |
