More than one-third of hospital med...

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 stranges 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;

* when medication errors caused harm to older adults, 96% were prescribing errors;

* when harm occurr unfit route (ie, 7%), such as a tube feeding given intravenously, and wicked administration technique (ie, 6.5%), as it was as not diluting concentrated medications, were the other 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 principally common types of medication errors experienced on older adults.

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

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