errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5
million people every year. The extra medical costs of
treating drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone
conservatively amount to $3.5 billion a year, and this estimate does
not take into account lost wages and productivity or additional health
care costs, the report says.
The committee that wrote the report
recommended a series of actions for patients, health care
organizations, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies. The
recommendations include steps to increase communication and improve
interactions between health care professionals and patients, as well as
steps patients should take to protect themselves. The report also
recommends the creation of new, consumer-friendly information resources
through which patients can obtain objective, easy-to-understand drug
information. In addition, it calls for all prescriptions to be written
electronically by 2010 and suggests ways to improve the naming,
labeling, and packaging of drugs to reduce confusion and prevent errors.
“The
frequency of medication errors and preventable adverse drug events is
cause for serious concern,” said committee co-chair Linda R.
Cronenwett, dean and professor, School of Nursing, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. “We need a comprehensive approach to reducing
these errors that involves not just health care organizations and
federal agencies, but the industry and consumers as well,” she said.
Co-chair J. Lyle Bootman, dean and professor, College of Pharmacy,
University of Arizona, Tucson, added, “Our recommendations boil down to
ensuring that consumers are fully informed about how to take
medications safely and achieve the desired results, and that health
care providers have the tools and data necessary to prescribe,
dispense, and administer drugs as safely as possible and to monitor for
problems. The ultimate goal is to achieve the best care and outcomes
for patients each time they take a medication.”
Medication
errors involve all mistakes involving prescription drugs,
over-the-counter products, vitamins, minerals, or herbal supplements.
Errors are common at every stage, from prescription and administration
of a drug to monitoring of the patient’s response, the committee
found. It estimated that on average, there is at least one medication
error per hospital patient per day, although error rates vary widely
across facilities. Not all errors lead to injury or death, but the
number of preventable injuries that do occur — the committee estimated
at least 1.5 million each year — is sobering, the report says.
Studies
indicate that 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year
in hospitals. Another 800,000 occur in long-term care settings, and
roughly 530,000 occur just among Medicare recipients in outpatient
clinics. The committee noted that these are likely underestimates.
For more information about this study, read the article.
___________________________________________________________
Robert W. Carter, Jr. is a Virginia attorney whose law practice is
dedicated to protecting the rights of the victims of nursing
home and assisted living neglect and abuse in Richmond, Roanoke,
Norfolk, Lynchburg, Danville, Charlottesville, and across Virginia.
