Nearly 5% of hospitalized patients experience an ADE, making them one of the most common types of inpatient errors. Each year, ADEs account for nearly 700,000 emergency department visits and 100,000 hospitalizations. Clinicians have access to an armamentarium of more than 10,000 prescription medications, and nearly one-third of adults in the United States take 5 or more medications. If an excessively large dose was administered, the overdose was detected by abnormal lab results, but the patient experienced a bleeding complication due to clinicians failing to respond appropriately, that would be considered an ameliorable ADE (that is, earlier detection could have reduced the level of harm the patient experienced).Īdverse drugs events are one of the most common preventable adverse events in all settings of care, mostly because of the widespread use of prescription and nonprescription medications. If the incorrect dose was dispensed and administered but the patient experienced no clinical consequences, that would be a potential ADE. If a clinician prescribes an incorrect dose of heparin, that would be considered a medication error (even if a pharmacist detected the mistake before the dose was dispensed). Safe use of heparin requires weight-based dosing and frequent monitoring of tests of the blood's clotting ability, in order to avoid either bleeding complications (if the dose is too high) or clotting risks (if the dose is inadequate). Finally, a certain percentage of patients will experience ADEs even when medications are prescribed and administered appropriately these are considered adverse drug reactions or nonpreventable ADEs (and are popularly known as side effects).įor example, the intravenous anticoagulant heparin is considered one of the highest-risk medications used in the inpatient setting. An ameliorable ADE is one in which the patient experienced harm from a medication that, while not completely preventable, could have been mitigated. Medication errors that do not cause any harm-either because they are intercepted before reaching the patient or because of luck-are often called potential ADEs. It is generally estimated that about half of ADEs are preventable. Preventable adverse drug events result from a medication error that reaches the patient and causes any degree of harm. As with the more general term adverse event, the occurrence of an ADE does not necessarily indicate an error or poor quality care. An adverse drug event (ADE) is defined as harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication.
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A medication error is an error (of commission or omission) at any step along the pathway that begins when a clinician prescribes a medication and ends when the patient actually receives the medication. Advances in clinical therapeutics have resulted in major improvements in health for patients with many diseases, but these benefits have also been accompanied by increased risks.