Home Medical Errors on the Rise

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

29 Jul 2008 07:36 PM

A research study from the University of California at San Diego found that the number of deaths resulting from medication mistakes at home has risen sharply over the last twenty years.

Researchers looked at nearly fifty million American death certificates from the last twenty-five years. They found some interesting trends:

• Nearly a quarter of a million deaths were caused by medication errors, including overdoses, drug interactions, and mixing prescription drugs with alcohol or recreational drugs.
• There were 1132 deaths from medication mistakes at home in 1983. Compare that to more than twelve thousand deaths from medication mistakes in 2004 and you have a more than seven hundred percent increase in twenty years (when you adjust for population growth).
• The biggest jump was in deaths resulting from mixing prescription drugs with recreational drugs and/or alcohol. Some health experts believe that patients simply disregard warnings on medication labels about alcohol.
• Over the last twenty years, there has only been a five percent increase in fatal medication mistakes away from home (like in hospitals). Any increase is bad, but five percent seems like very little compared to the 700% increase in at-home errors.

Why the dramatic rise? Study authors attribute the rise in at-home medication mistake deaths to several things:

• Increasing use of prescription painkillers. Pain management is now considered a key part of the healing process!
• Increasing use of potent drugs that were mainly used in hospitals twenty-five years ago.
• Amount of medical supervision is declining, forcing patients to assume responsibility for care and dosing.
• Abuse of prescription drugs.
• Sharing of prescription drugs -- taking drugs that were not originally prescribed to you.

In order to prevent a medication mistake at home, always follow the dosing instructions your doctor provided. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about drug interactions. Never offer your prescription drugs to someone else, and don't take drugs that were not prescribed to you.

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