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Older adults risk more hospital medication errors

More than one-third of hospital medication errors that reach patients involve older adults, showing they continue to be a vulnerable population in US health care facilities, according to a Nov 18, 2003, news release From United States Pharmacopeia (USP). This finding and others appear in the organization's 2002 MEDMARX annual data report, which analyzed the medication errors reported to MEDMARX--USP's national Internet-accessible anonymous reporting database--during 2002.

The MEDMARX data report revealed a number of significant findings about the older-adult population. Findings include that

* more than half (ie, 55%) of fatal hospital medication errors reported involved older adults;

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* when medication errors caused harm to older adults, 9.6% were prescribing errors;

* when harm occurred, wrong route (ie, 7%), such as a tube feeding given intravenously, and wrong administration technique (ie, 6.5%), such as not diluting concentrated medications, were the second and third most common errors involving those ages 65 and older; and

* omission errors (ie, 43%), improper dose or quantity errors (ie, 18%), and unauthorized medication errors (ie, 11%) were the most common types of medication errors experienced by older adults.

USP Releases Fourth Annual Report on Medication Errors in US Hospitals (news release, Rockville, Md: United States Pharmacopeia, Nov 18, 2003) http://www.onlinepressroom.net/uspharm (accessed 8 Dec 2003).

Health Care Industry

Older adults risk more hospital medication errors

AORN Journal, Feb, 2004

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