Improving Patient Safety: Medication Allergies and Adverse Drug Effects

Problem: The accuracy of adverse drug events reporting is essential to proper documentation and patient safety. Over 50 % of prescriptions are used improperly and lead to preventable medicine-related illnesses that account for over $75 billion/year in costs and adverse drug reactions are the 4-6th leading cause of death in the U.S. Unreported allergies and ADE increase the risk of medical/medication errors. Evidence: Approximately 770,000 Americans are hospitalized and suffer ADRs which cost hospitals over $5.6 billion yearly. While many thousands of deaths may occur from medication errors, the accurate number of ADR caused deaths is not known. In 2006, The Institute of Medicine estimated that 1.5 million of these ADR in the United States could be prevented. In our system, over 600-900 adverse drug events are reported per month, but less than 1 % are reported by staff nurses, while physicians, pharmacists, and advanced practice nurses reported about 30 % of ADRs monthly. Baseline: A retrospective review of chart documentation reflected that from 20 % to 50 % of patients had a medication allergy that was incomplete or incorrectly recorded. The nurse’s lack of knowledge of the drug and its effects is the most common source of ADRs