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Medication
Side Effects Strike 1 in 4
The above
headline comes from one of a series of articles recently published on
medical errors and side effects. The first article with the title above
appeared in the April 16, 2003 MSNBC news. That article starts off by
reporting that 3.34 BILLION prescriptions were dispensed in the United
States in 2002 alone. With this staggering number, the article reports that
side effects from prescription medicines plague one in four patients, and
when they surface, most doctors fail to act.
The article was stirred by a research
report published in the April 17, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine. The
report was based on research performed at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in
Boston. Chief author of the study, Tejal K. Gandhi, M.D., commented, "It’s
a problem that is common, in many cases the impact could be prevented or
reduced, and it has a large impact on patients.” In an editorial in that
same NEJM issue, William Tierney of the Indiana University School of
Medicine said, "They found that adverse drug events were fairly frequent and
usually mild, although potentially serious, and preventable events were more
frequent than any patient or clinician would like or should be willing to
accept.”
Two other similar articles reported that
one-fourth of patients with health problems in five different countries say
they suffered from a medical mistake or prescription error in the past two
years. These statistics came from a Harvard-led study published in the May
6, 2003 issue of Health Affairs. The Harvard survey of sick adults was
conducted in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. At least 750 persons were surveyed in each country. Robert Blendon,
the Harvard professor who led the study stated, "The biggest risk is when
you're seeing multiple doctors who are doing lots of tests and prescribing a
lot of drugs."
The survey also showed that more than one
in four, 28 percent, of those patients who see more than two doctors in the
United States and Canada said they had been given duplicate tests by
different doctors. In March, the US Food and Drug Administration announced
it would demand bar codes be placed on all medications used in hospitals to
try to eliminate errors. It is estimated that American hospitals will spend
$7 billion to read the codes and computerize doctors' orders.
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