Drug Safety News
U.S. Nursing Home Patients Suffer 1.9 Million Adverse Drug Events
Annually
86,000 are Fatal or Life-Threatening; 70% of Which are Preventable
The nation's long-term care residents suffer 1.9 million adverse
drug events every year, according to a new study from the University
of Massachusetts Medical School.1 The
study concluded that 86,000 of these adverse drug events were fatal
or life-threatening, and that 70 percent of those events were preventable.
Researchers studied residents of two academic long-term care facilities
over a period of up to 9 months. During that time the researchers
assessed the frequency, severity, and preventability of adverse drug
events. An adverse drug event is defined as "an injury resulting
from the use of a drug." Their findings include:
Adverse Drug Events
- The study found that overall, almost 1 in 10 residents suffered
an adverse drug event every month. Over 70% of adverse events resulted
in symptoms lasting more than 1 day. Many of the adverse events
were considered preventable, and the authors found, "Serious,
life-threatening, and fatal adverse drug events were more likely
to be preventable than were less severe events."
Prescription and Monitoring Errors
- Adverse drug events were most often caused by errors in the prescribing
and monitoring stages of pharmaceutical care. Fewer errors occurred
at the dispensing and administration stages. Residents regularly
taking more medications or taking medications from several drug
categories were found to be at a higher risk of having an adverse
drug event.
New Report Confirms Prior Study
- The report also cited a previous study2
by the same author in which it was determined that adverse drug
events in community-based nursing homes are common, and that at
least half of such events may be preventable.
- Jerry H. Gurwitz et al., The Incidence of Adverse
Drug Events in Two Large Academic Long-Term Care Facilities. Am
J Med. 2005;Vol. 118.251-258
- Jerry H. Gurwitz et al., Incidence and Preventability of Adverse
Drug Events in Nursing Homes. Am J Med. 2000; Vol.109:87-94.
March 7, 2005
|
