Subscribe to our newsletter. When a government study revealed that up to 98,000 patients are killed each year by medical mistakes , demands were made throughout the country for improvements in medical care, forcing changes in a system that appeared to have turned its back on the Hippocratic Oath . The medical profession and the government immediately increased their efforts to reduce medical mistakes.
Medication is one of the areas receiving a great deal of attention.
Roughly 3.75 billion drug administrations were made in U.S. hospitals in 1998, through a process that starts with scribbled doctor orders or verbal orders, goes through a transit system of paper or phoned orders to the pharmacy, where the medication is dispensed and then hopefully sent back through transit for distribution as ordered, and then dispensed correctly to the right patient. Problems with this process are responsible for as much as 20 percent of these medical mistakes, accounting for 7,000 deaths each year. ISMP and the FDA communicate constantly to help prevent medication errors. Disseminate information about safe medication practices. Share stories from hospitals about innovations in patient safety that are working in health systems today.