Health Buzz (Part 2)

The Institute of Medicine looked at the prevalence of medication errors and found scary stuff.

• The average hospital patient is the victim of about one medication error per day.
• There are at least 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events each day.
• Each harmful error adds $8,750 to the cost of your hospital stay.

To reduce your risk:

• Keep records of all drugs you take and monitor them (look at your prescriptions carefully: tell your doctor if you notice problems after starting a new Rx).
• All doctors should switch to e-prescriptions by 2010.