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A 2006 study found that medication errors are among the most common medical mistakes, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. According to the study, 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals, 800,000 in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics.
[126] Errors by hospital staff nurses are more likely when work shifts extend beyond 12 hours, or they work over 40 hours in one week. Studies have shown that overtime shifts have harmful effects on the quality of care provided to patients, but some researchers "who evaluated the safety of 12-hour shifts did not find increases in medication ...
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is an American 501(c)(3) organization focusing on the prevention of medication errors and promoting safe medication practices. [1] It is affiliated with ECRI .
A 2012 study reported there may be as many as 1,500 instances of one never event, a retained foreign object, per year in the United States. The same study suggests an estimated total of surgical mistakes at just over 4,000 per year in the United States, but these statistics are extrapolations from small samples rather than actual event counts. [1]
Unnecessary drug therapy. This could occur when the patient has been placed on too many medications for their condition and the drug is simply not needed. [7] Wrong drug. This could occur when a patient is given medication that does not treat the patient's condition. Ex. A heart medication to treat an infection. [7] Dose too low.
A registered nurse demonstrates how to prepare an IV infusion of Leqembi, a drug for Alzheimer's disease, at a UCLA clinic in January. Some physicians say they will not prescribe the medication.
Levothyroxine, a drug used to treat hypothyroidism, can lead to reduced bone mass and density in older adults with normal thyroid levels, a small cohort study has shown.
Causes of medication errors include mistakes by the pharmacist incorrectly interpreting illegible handwriting or ambiguous nomenclature, and lapses in the prescriber's knowledge of desired dosage of a drug or undesired interactions between multiple drugs. Electronic prescribing has the potential to eliminate most of these types of errors.