Hospital patients should expect to suffer one adverse drug event (due to human error) every day they remain hospitalized

Although the first report by the Institute for Health was released in 1999, stating that medical errors were responsible for as many as 98,000 deaths each year, when you read the statistics from the 2006 report, you will be shocked to learn that hospital patients should still expect to suffer one adverse drug event (due to human error) every day they remain hospitalized. Not very comforting... Perhaps legislation is needed to ensure (at the very least) that prescriptions are PRINTED legibly.

An article about the report, “Preventing Medication Errors" by the Institute of Health can be found at the Environmental Health website under the heading "21 July Report finds a heavy toll from medication errors." The shocking facts and figures can be found at item #3 at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11623.html#toc and you can also follow a link in the EHN article.