Medication Errors-A Persistent Problem

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The physican can evaluate the patient properly, make the correct diagnosis, and yet the patient doesn’t recover. Why? Often, it’s due to a medication error.

A recent CNN report looked at medication errors:
“Medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people every year, according to the Institute of Medicine. In hospitals, there is at least one medication error per patient per day, according to an IOM report last year… Outside the hospital, the situation is not as clear. But the IOM report says roughly 530,000 medication errors occur among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics — and that this is most likely an underestimate.”
“The numbers really are staggering,” said Albert Wu, professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, in the CNN report. “Medication errors happen every day.”
These medication errors cost the healthcare industry time, resources, and money. Yet, the problem doesn’t seem to be improving.

Mark Abramson
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