There is at least one medication error per hospital patient per day on average, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people every year--400,000 of those drug-related injuries occur in hospitals--and inpatient drug errors alone cost an extra $3.5 billion per year to treat. Medication errors for Medicare patients alone added $887 million in extra medical costs.
The committee recommended steps to increase communication and improve interactions between healthcare professionals and patients, as well as steps patients should take to protect themselves. The report also recommends that healthcare organizations make it a standard procedure to inform patients about clinically significant medication errors made in their care, whether the mistakes lead to harm or not; that the FDA work toward standardizing the text and design of medication leaflets to ensure that they are comprehensible to all consumers; and that the National Library of Medicine create a web site to serve as a centralized source of comprehensive, objective, and easy-to-understand information about drugs for consumers. The report advises all providers to use e-prescribing systems and all pharmacies receive prescriptions electronically by 2010. It also suggests ways to improve the naming, labeling, and packaging of drugs to reduce confusion and prevent errors, and urges the funding of a national network of telephone help lines to assist people who may not be able to access or understand printed medication information and to report medication-related mistakes or problems.
