Drug Errors Harm 1.5 Million A Year (CBS)

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/20/health/main1823121.shtml

Drug Errors Harm 1.5 Million A Year

Report Finds Med Mix-Ups All Too Common In Hospitals And Other Facilities

(Page 1 of 2)
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2006

(AP) More than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor's offices, a count that doesn't even estimate patients' own medication mix-ups, says a report that calls for major steps to increase patient safety.

Topping that list: All prescriptions should be written electronically by 2010, the Institute of Medicine said. At least a quarter of all medication-related injuries are preventable, the institute concluded in the report it released Thursday.


Quote "The numbers are big. The injuries are big. This is a problem, it's serious and it continues."

Perhaps the most stunning finding of the report was that, on average, a hospitalized patient is subject to at least one medication error per day — despite intense efforts to improve hospital care in the six years since the institute began focusing attention on medical mistakes of all kinds.

The new probe couldn't say how many victims of drug errors die. A 1999 estimate put the number of deaths, conservatively, at 7,000 a year. Also unknown is how many of the injuries are serious.

[bemildred]

1. American "health care" can do you great harm.

Be warned.

[Warpy]

4. It certainly can now that it's been Walmartized

with the least amount of people taking care of the sickest of the sick. That's how errors happen. The environment is rushed and there are fewer and fewer hands and if somebody crashes, there is simply no way to catch up.

Do you know that there would be no nursing shortage if they addressed WORKING CONDITIONS? Over half the registered nurses in this country refuse to work in nursing because the conditions are so bad.

It's going to keep getting worse, too. The only thing desk jockeys can think of when cost cutting time comes around again is STAFFING. Either they let nursing positions go unfilled or they chop away all the other jobs and push the work onto already overworked nurse.

I'm only surprised the error rate is so low.

[Lefty-Taylor]

2. Thanks for this post, Steve. This is yet another reason why "tort

reform" should be stopped. The public needs to have the right to sue and receive adequate compensation -- not limited by a measely $250k cap -- when so-called professionals screw up lives. Bush-Inc. lies shamelessly when it pushes "tort reform."

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Been there, done that and lived to tell the tale

In my case the accidentally gave me a medication that I was allergic to (which was noted on my chart) and I went into anaphylactic shock. Oppsie! Luckily a hospital isn't such a bad place to be if you happen to go into anaphylactic shock.

[cenacle]

5. there exists technology...

for paperless electronic medical record keeping, including bar code scanning, prescription ordering, the whole works...I work for a company that does this, but there are many companies...and there are hospitals, like Intermountain Healthcare in the midwest, and the Mayo Clinic, to name but a few, who have this kind of technology...it is costly, but getting less so all the time...I think it is the way of the future to prevent the kinds of tragic things that happen...

[Pavulon]

6. Shit headline (human errors)

caused the problem. A person mis wrote or mis filled the script.

The drugs aren't the problem. Scripts should be electronically filed in plain english and filled by a robot that isn't tired, hungover, or thinking about how shitty his divorce is.

Works for plenty of other systems.

[underpants]

10. What do you call the guy who finished LAST in his class at medical school?

"Doctor"

[NoAmericanTaliban]

7. Now here is the real drug war we should be fighting n/t

[NC_Nurse]

8. ...

Don't get me started.

[Mnemosyne]

9. Don't forget errors at the pharmacy. I was prescribed

50mg once a day and was given 500 mg pills.

ER was a great place to be that day.