1.5 Million Death Due to Drug Errors

A new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies reveals that 1.5 million people are harmed annually by medical errors.  These reported errors are conservatively costing $3.5 Billion a year of extra medical costs.  This figure does not take into account lost wages, productivity or additional health care costs.  “The frequency of medication errors and preventable adverse drug events is cause for serious concern,” said committee co-chair Linda R. Cronenwett. Dean and professor, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  The figures show that on average, there are at least one medication error per hospital per day. Not all errors lead to death, but the number of preventative injuries that do occur is at least 1.5 million according to the committee.  The main reason for these deaths is the wrong drug being prescribed to patients.  Even more disturbing is the fact that currently, health care providers typically do not inform the patient or the patient’s guardians about errors unless injury or death results.  Now if you take into account the number of patients that are harmed and killed by taking the “right” drug, the death toll by drugs is huge.