A Call to Classify and Quantify Hospital Medication Errors: Results from a Meta-Analysis

Abstract

In 2000, the Institute of Medicine published To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System which stated that between 44,000 to 98,000 patient deaths occur annually due to largely preventable medical errors. While this number is staggering, the number of errors adversely affecting patients in ways other than death must be much greater. The goal of the current study was to determine the types of in-hospital drug-related medical errors that occur, as well as to quantify the proportion and severity of those errors. A lack of consistency across studies in hospital error reporting prevented an accurate analysis of drug-related errors and their severity. The authors recommend future studies (and hospitals alike) adhere to, at minimum, five guidelines in error reporting. It is hoped that with standardized reporting methods a better understanding of medication-related errors can be gained, thus resulting in the design and implementation of error-reducing measures.