High medication error rate in US hospitals

New York

ABOUT half of all surgeries involve some kind of medication error or unintended drug side effects, if a new study done at one of America's most prestigious academic medical centres is any indication.

The rate, calculated by researchers from the anaesthesiology department at Massachusetts General Hospital who observed 277 procedures there, is startlingly high compared with those in the few earlier studies. Those studies relied mostly on self- reported data from clinicians, rather than directly watching operations, and found errors to be exceedingly rare.

"There is a substantial potential for medication-related harm and a number of opportunities to improve safety," according to the new study, …