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One of the major issues related to healthcare is the relatively high number of medication errors that occur. Errors with medication can occur in the doctor's office, at the pharmacy, in hospitals and even due to the patient. Wrong medication (medication errors, errors in medication) include:

• Administration of wrong medication.
• Administration of medication that interacts in wrong way with another medication or patient's condition.
• Wrong administration of medication.
• Wrong time administration.
• Wrong timing administration.
• Administration of medication to wrong person.
• Administration of wrong dose.
• Missed dose.

Consequences of medical errors

Medical errors may causes serious injury and illness. While many drug errors don't injure patients, others are lethal. The most notorious of these, cited in the Institute of Medicine report, is the massive chemotherapy overdose that killed Boston Globe health reporter Betsy Lehman, 39, in 1994 and gravely injured another woman

The same IOM report gives detailed information about deaths and adverse events caused by errors in medication.

The report also estimates that in 1993 resulted 7,391 deaths from medication errors. The same report cites one study finding that about 2% of medical admissions in hospitals experienced a preventable adverse drug event, although the majority are not fatal. Error in medication was considered guilty of death for 1 in 131 outpatient administration and 1 in 854 inpatient administration.

A recent report of same organization (July 2006) concludes that at least 1.5 million Americans are sickened, injured or killed each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications.

Causes of wrong medication

The leading cause of errors in medication is neglijence in prescribtion or administration of medication. On the other hand, the IOM report and other cite following factors as causal in medication errrors:

• incorrect dosage administration, especially in children and infants that require the need to adjust dosages based on weight and age.
• name confusion is among the most common causes of drug-related errors, generated by the sound-alike names such as Lamisil and Lamictal. The explosion in the number of drugs on the market - there are now more than 10,000 - has increased the chances of this kind of error.
• unknown allergy to same medication class.
• atypical or unusual and critical dosage frequency considerations.
• failure to calculate the correct dosage.
• using of wrong name or abbreviation.

As a general observation the more drugs a patient is taking and the more people involved in the delivery of a medicine, the greater the chance of a mistake.

Books

• Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, "Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies", JAMA 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-5

• Eileen G. Holland, PHARM.D., and Frank V. Degruy, M.D. "Drug-Induced Disorders", Volume 15, No. 7, November 1, 1997,

References

1. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, 2000, Institute of Medicine
2. Make No Mistake: Medical Errors Can Be Deadly Serious

External links

• Medication Errors Harming Millions
• Gangsters In Medicine
• Personal injury