Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Study Finds Hospitals Making Numerous Medication Errors
Aired September 10, 2002 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical news this morning in our "House Call," some news you probably don't want to hear about though, but it's probably good stuff to know. Hospitals, apparently, make mistakes with medication 20 percent of the time according to a new study.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta knows all about prescriptions and hospitals and the risk involved here -- good morning, Sanjay, good to see you.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: What did the study spell out for us?
GUPTA: Well, I will tell you, you know, the institute of medicine, actually released a study back in '99 that found that 98,000 deaths a year are probably due to medical errors. Now what this study, Bill, is talking about is medication errors, specifically seven to 14,000 deaths of those 98,000 maybe due to medication errors.
And they went on to find that one in 12 times, after a patient has been in the hospital, the patient actually has to come back to the hospital, be admitted because of a medication error. One in eight times, they have to go to an emergency room just because of a medication error.
Now, most of the times, Bill, a lot of patients and other people feel that doctors' messy handwriting, doctors' crazy abbreviations might actually have something to do with these medication errors, and some of the times they do, but that is not the only thing. This study pointed out that after a prescription is written, several steps take place, and at any point along these steps, an error can occur. A transportation of the correct drug from the pharmacy to the patient's ward has to take place. After that, the identification of the patient, which sounds simpler than it really is for many hospitals, has to take place. And the finally, the administration of the drug, of the correct drug to the correct patient has to take place.
All of these steps can potentially be fraught with errors. This particular study looked at 36 hospitals in Colorado and Georgia and found, Bill, as you mentioned, one in five times at a typical 300 bed hospital, one in five times, 20 percent of the time, a medication error occurred. That translated roughly to two errors per patient every single day. Now, most of the time, they are not harmful errors. Only 7 percent of the time are they potentially harmful errors, but Bill, you and I both have -- have had family and friends in hospitals, so it is certainly something to think about.
HEMMER: Describe these errors in better detail for us. What kind of errors are we talking about? How do they come about?
GUPTA: Well, they actually did break it down. If you look at the chart here, wrong time, the medication was actually given at the wrong time. That occurred 43 percent of the time. Not getting the medication at all, 30 percent of the time. Wrong dose, 17 percent of the time, and an unauthorized drug or the wrong drug occurred just a few percent of the time as well. So those are some of the errors. It didn't break down to say how many times those medication errors led to deaths, but that is certainly something they were thinking about as well.
HEMMER: All right. So then, for people who may find themselves checked into a hospital, and may have to take on medication, what can they do, what sort of guidelines can they follow, insure it doesn't happen to them?
GUPTA: Well, you know, the first thing I'll say is that hospitals certainly do have an obligation to make sure they are giving the correct medications. I don't want to bypass that point. Identifying the patient is certainly a part of that. Typically, hospitals use one identifier, which just might be the hospital room. They should also check the wrist bracelet, they should also ask the patient to state his or her name if they are able to, if they are awake enough. But certainly for the patients themselves, take a list of your medications to the hospital, that is a really important point. Know the names and doses and schedules. It is amazing how many patients don't know when they should be taking their medications. Know the reasons you are taking the medications. You can see the list sort of goes on and on there, Bill, but certainly there are some things that patients can do as well.
HEMMER: We got to get you guys to start typing instead of writing.
GUPTA: About that (ph). That's right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay.
GUPTA: My handwriting's pretty neat, Bill, you know that.
HEMMER: All right. You got it. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
