What You Need to Know

Medication errors are an increasing problem in the health care system today. The effects of medication errors can cause serious permanent injury and even death to a patient. Even as technological advancements are put in place to help prevent these errors, they continue at an alarming rate.

• Causes

  Medication errors can happen in a variety of ways, such as:

  • Hospital medication errors
  • Insufficient warning labels
  • Pharmacist negligence
  • Pharmacy errors
  • Prescription medication errors
  • Prescription medication interactions
  • Wrong medication prescribed

  Medication errors are most commonly caused by:

  • Incorrect diagnosis
  • Prescribing the wrong medication
  • Drug interactions and reactions
  • Dose miscalculations
  • Incorrect drug administration
  • Lack of patient education
  • Improper training or education
  • Sound-alike or look-alike drug packaging
• Frequency
  • Medication errors occur in about one of five doses in hospitals.
  • Medication errors cause at least one death every day.
  • Some 1.3 million people sustain injury from medication errors every year.
  • It is estimated that 7,000 people die each year from medication errors.
  • Adverse drug events cause more than 770,000 injuries and deaths every year. This costs up to $5.6 million per hospital.
• Consequences

  When a drug is prescribed to a patient, it is the doctor’s and pharmacist’s duty to make sure that the medication is sufficient for the diagnosis and that it will not interact with any other medications that the patient may be taking. Taking the wrong kind of medication or mixing medications can cause serious injury or even death.