SACRAMENTO – Mistakes in prescriptions
and use of over-the-counter drugs
kill 150,000 Californians and costs the
state $17.7 billion, according to a
state Medication Errors Panel.
The errors occur outside of a hospital
setting. Many of the errors occur when
people take the wrong drug, perhaps
confusing it with a similar medicine, or
fail to follow instructions on the
bottle. “Think of the potential
hazardous outcome of prescribing the
allergy medicine Zyrtec to a young child
and having that child mistakenly receive
Zyprexa, a highly potent antipsychotic.
It is a simple mistake yet it can have
devastating consequences,” says Sen.
Sheila Kuehl (D – Santa Barbara).
The panel was instructed to identify
medication errors in community settings
following a 1999 report by the U.S.
Institute of Medicine, which focused on
medical mistakes made in hospitals. The
institute has said 1.5 million injuries
or deaths occur nationwide each year due
to these errors, according to Sen.
Jackie Speier (D – San Francisco), who
sponsored the bill instituting the state
panel.
The panel recommended many changes, from
electronic prescriptions to improved
consumer education, as solutions.Return to
October 2007 Issue
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