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Medical Errors Make News More Than Ever
Numerous articles recently in the press have dealt with
the issue of Medical mistakes. The articles center around the growing
numbers of errors, damage and death due to those errors, and attempts at
reducing them. The reactions to these problems have prompted congressional
action and activity by government agencies to track the incidence of medical
errors.
The March 5, 2003 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association published a report entitled, "Incidence and
Preventability of Adverse Drug Events Among Older Persons in the Ambulatory
Setting". In this study researchers evaluated the records of more than
27,000 patients seen in a large, multi-specialty group practice in New
England over a 12 month period between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000.
The results showed that there were 1523 identified adverse drug events, of
which 27.6%(421) were considered by the researchers to be preventable. The
overall rate of adverse drug events was 50.1 per 1000 persons, per year. Of
the adverse drug events, 578 (38.0%) were categorized as serious,
life-threatening, or fatal.
The researchers also projected these figures nation
wide. Using these calculations they concluded that with the total number of
Medicare enrollees in the U.S. being approximately 38 million people, it
would be estimated that there would be more than 1.9 million adverse drug
events each year, with more than one quarter being preventable. Researchers
further stated, " there are in excess of 180,000 life-threatening or fatal
adverse drug events per year, of which more than 50% may be preventable"
they further noted that, "these estimates are likely to be conservative."
The Ivanhoe Newswire ran a story on March 14, 2003 that
stated that the US Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) proposes rules to
curb medical errors. The new rules will require bar coding on medications
and improved reporting requirements for safety problems that involve
medicine. The required bar code would contain a National Drug Code number,
identifying information about the drug. The proposed rule would apply to all
prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and vaccines. Another
proposed amendment by the FDA would require companies to submit all reports
they receive of actual and potential medication errors to the FDA within 15
calendar days.
News from Mar. 12, 2003 that appeared in numerous reports
including the Associated Press reported from Washington DC that the US House
of Representatives passed a bill to create a voluntary system to track
medical errors. It also promises confidentiality to hospitals and doctors
and assurances the information will not go to lawyers for use in malpractice
suits. The US Senate has not acted on a similar measure. The article also
noted that the Institute of Medicine has said that medical errors contribute
to more than 1 million injuries and up to 98,000 deaths annually.
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