IOM recommends steps to prevent medication errors

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

IOM recommends steps to prevent medication errors

Source: AHA News Now (http://www.ahanews.com)
Date: July 20, 2006


In a report released today, the Institute of Medicine called the frequency of medication 
errors and related injuries “a serious concern” and suggested error-prevention strategies

for hospitals, long-term care and  ambulatory care. Among the report’s more ambitious 
recommendations is that health care organizations create plans to implement electronic 
prescribing by 2008 and implement them by 2010. They also urge all  pharmacies to be 
able to receive electronic prescriptions by 2010. The authors, who estimate that a 
hospital patient is subject to at least one medication error per day on average, noted
that 
a number of  error-prevention strategies are already available, and stressed that the 
responsibility for reducing errors falls to patients and  regulators as well as
providers. 
They also noted that the investment in such strategies is cheaper than the human and 
financial costs of medical errors. An error that causes harm in a hospital can cost an 
additional $6,000, they said, while an injury-inducing error in an outpatient setting can

cost an additional $2,000.


For more information, please visit: http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3809/22526/35939.aspx 


Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/


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