Medication Error Statistics
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Medication Errors Statistics 2014
Expert/Advisory Panel Terms & Conditions / Copyright PSNet Privacy Policy External Link Disclaimer Patient Safety Primer Last Updated: March 2015 medication errors articles Medication Errors Topics Resource Type Patient Safety Primers Safety Target Medication Errors/Preventable Adverse Drug Events Look-Alike, Sound-Alike Drugs More Share Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Print Background and definitions Prescription medication use is medication errors statistics cdc widespread, complex, and increasingly risky. Clinicians have access to an armamentarium of more than 10,000 prescription medications, and nearly one-third of adults in the United States take 5 or more medications. Advances in clinical therapeutics have undoubtedly resulted in major improvements in health for patients with many diseases, but these benefits have also been accompanied by increased risks. An adverse drug event (ADE) is defined as
Medication Errors In Hospitals
harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication, and ADEs account for nearly 700,000 emergency department visits and 100,000 hospitalizations each year. ADEs affect nearly 5% of hospitalized patients, making them one of the most common types of inpatient errors; ambulatory patients may experience ADEs at even higher rates. Transitions in care are also a well-documented source of preventable harm related to medications. As with the more general term adverse event, the occurrence of an ADE does not necessarily indicate an error or poor quality care. A medication error refers to an error (of commission or omission) at any step along the pathway that begins when a clinician prescribes a medication and ends when the patient actually receives the medication. Preventable adverse drug events result from a medication error that reaches the patient and causes any degree of harm. It is generally estimated that about half of ADEs are preventable. Medication errors that do not cause any harm—either because they are intercepted before reaching the patient, or by luck—are often called potential ADEs. An ameliorable ADE is one in which the patient experienced harm from a medication that, while not
Home Food Drugs Medical Devices Radiation-Emitting Products Vaccines, Blood & Biologics Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics Tobacco Products Drugs Home Drugs Resources for You Information for Consumers (Drugs) Strategies to Reduce Medication Errors: Working to Improve Medication Safety examples of medication errors Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More sharing options Linkedin Pin it Email Print When Jacquelyn preventing medication errors Ley shattered her elbow on the soccer field, her parents set out to find her the best care in Minneapolis. "We drove past five
Medication Errors In Nursing
other hospitals to get to the one we wanted," says Carol Ley, M.D., an occupational health physician. Her husband, an orthopedic surgeon, made sure Jacquelyn got the right surgeon. After a successful three-hour surgery to repair the broken bones, https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primers/primer/23/medication-errors Jacquelyn, who was 9 at the time, received the pain medicine morphine through a pump and was hooked up to a heart monitor, breathing monitor, and blood oxygen monitor. Her recovery was going so well that doctors decided to turn off the morphine pump and to forgo regular checks of her vital signs.Carol Ley slept in her daughter's hospital room that night. When she woke up in the middle of the night and checked on her, Jacquelyn was barely http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm143553.htm breathing. "I called her name, but she wouldn't respond," she says. "I shook her and called for help." The morphine pump hadn't been shut down, but had accidentally been turned up high. The narcotic flooded Jacquelyn's body. She survived the overdose, but it was a close call. "If three more hours had gone by, I don't think Jacquelyn would have survived," Ley says. "Fortunately, I woke up."Ley was pleased with the way the hospital handled the error. "They came right out and said the morphine pump was incorrectly programmed, they told me the steps they were going to take to make sure Jacquelyn was OK, and they also told me what they were going to do to make sure this kind of mistake won't happen again. And that's very important to me." The hospital began using pumps that are easier to use and revamped nurses' training. Ley believes there were many contributors to the error, including the fact that it was Labor Day weekend and there were staff shortages. "It goes to show that this can happen to anyone, anywhere," says Ley, who now chairs the board of the National Patient Safety Foundation.Multiple FactorsSince 1992, the Food and Drug Administration has received nearly 30,000 reports of medication errors. These are voluntary reports, so the number of medication errors that actually occur is thought to be much higher. There is no "typical" medication error, a
Home Food Drugs Medical Devices Radiation-Emitting Products Vaccines, Blood & Biologics Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics http://www.fda.gov/drugs/drugsafety/medicationerrors/ Tobacco Products Drugs Home Drugs Drug Safety and Availability Medication Errors Medication Errors Related to Drugs Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More sharing options Linkedin Pin it Email Print Within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), the Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis (DMEPA) reviews medication error reports on marketed human drugs including medication error prescription drugs, generic drugs, and over-the-counter drugs. DMEPA uses the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) definition of a medication error. Specifically, a medication error is "any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, medication errors statistics patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use."DMEPA includes a medication error prevention program staffed with healthcare professionals. Among their many duties, program staff review medication error reports sent to MedWatch, evaluate causality, and analyze the data to provide solutions to reduce the risk of medication errors to industry and others at FDA.Additionally, DMEPA prospectively reviews proprietary names, labeling, packaging, and product design prior to drug approval to help prevent medication errors.Although DMEPA encourages manufacturers to perform their due diligence when naming their drug products and we strive to avoid approving confusing proprietary names for drug products, there are cases of adverse events where a name of a marketed product is identified as a source of confusion and error. Therefore, we continue to encourage healthcare providers, patients and consumers to report all medication errors to MedWatch so that we can be made aware