Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people and costing more than $3.5 billion every year, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The problem is so serious that the average hospital patient is subject to one medication error per day.

The 17-member expert panel cited a variety of causes for the problems, including unexpected drug interactions, confusion over similar drug names, bad handwriting of physicians, nurses giving patients drugs meant for other patients, and patients not understanding how to take the drugs.

The report—requested by Congress and funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—is a follow-up to a 1999 IOM report that found that as many as 98,000 people were killed each year as a result of medical errors, 7,000 of them as a result of medication errors.

The new study lays out a series of recommendations for minimizing the risk of medication errors. Among these recommendations are to have all prescriptions written electronically by 2010 and to improve the naming, labeling, and packaging of prescription drugs to reduce confusion. Crucial to reducing medication errors, according to the report, is establishing and maintaining strong partnerships and effective communication between health care providers and patients.

Click here to read the report.

Contact: Sandra Bressler, 415/882-5171 or sbressler@cmanet.org.