Doctors urge the public to be cautious as potentially fatal melanoma cases increase.
Children are three times more likely to fall victim to medication errors in hospitals than are adults, according to a new study, which also finds that computerized prescribing systems can eliminate more than 90 percent of potentially fatal mistakes. The study is the largest ever undertaken involving medication mistakes in pediatric hospital settings and is reported by a team of Boston researchers in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. In general, pediatric studies tend to lag behind adult studies. The Institute of Medicine, a division of the independent research group the National Academies, estimated in 1999 that 44,000 to 98,000 people die annually because of medical errors in hospitals. Kaushal, an internist and pediatrician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, examined medications prescribed at Children's Hospital Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital during a six-week period in April and May of 1999.