According to a recent Yale-New
Haven Hospital study, 3 out of 4 patients leave the hospital with either the
wrong prescriptions or a lack of understanding about their medications.
The chief researcher, Dr.
Leora Horwitz, who also practices at the hospital, said healthcare providers
“do a relatively poor job of educating patients about their medications.”
Medical malpractice mistakes
involving medication errors injuring more than 1.3 million persons a year.
The study looked at 377 Yale-New
Haven Hospital patients, ages 64 and older, who had been admitted with heart
failure, acute coronary syndrome or pneumonia, then discharged to home.
Of that group, 307 patients -
- 81% - - either experienced a provider error in their discharge medications or
had no understanding of at least one intended medication change.
“We’re talking about the vast
majority of our patients going home at potential risk” of medication problems,
Horwitz said. “That’s huge. Collectively, something is not right.”
The Yale study relied on
interviews with patients after discharge, who were asked about their medication
regimen. The researchers also reviewed patients’ admission and discharge
medication records to see if all changes were intentional, or if any appeared
to be errors.
Other study findings include:
•24% of medication changes
were due to provider error.
•The average patient had no
understanding of 60% of all stopped, re-dosed and new medications.
•Errors and misunderstanding
were more common for medications not related to patient’s primary diagnosis
than for those related to main ailment being treated.
•The electronic medical
records system used at Yale and other hospitals makes it hard to track and
reconcile medication changes.
•Patient discharge lists
don’t flag which prescriptions are new and which have been stopped.
•Patients at many hospitals
get a quick drug rundown from a nurse before discharge, but not a thorough
review that ensures they understand the medications.
Dr. Horowitz recounted a
horror story in which one of her patients switched to a new beta blocker for
high blood pressure during an inpatient hospital stay. She landed back in the hospital after
discharge when she took both the new medication and her old beta blocker – a
combination that lowered her heart rate and blood pressure to dangerous levels.
Medical malpractice errors –
including prescription mistakes – are responsible for up to 98,000 wrongful
deaths in American hospitals each year.
The full Yale-New Haven
Hospital is at:
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/12/03/news/doc50bd213d5f662015750301.txt
