More than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor's offices, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine. Sadly, many of these medication-related injuries are preventable. These findings emphasize the need for every healthcare consumer to be vigilant.

Perhaps the most stunning finding of the report was that, on average, a hospitalized patient is subject to at least one medication error per day. The new probe couldn't say how many victims of drug errors die. A 1999 estimate put the number of deaths, conservatively, at 7,000 a year.

But a preventable drug error can add more than $5,800 to the hospital bill of a single patient. Assuming that hospitals commit 400,000 preventable drug errors each year, that's $3.5 billion — not counting lost productivity and other costs — from hospitals alone, the report concluded.

The report revealed that there are more than 10,000 prescription drugs on the market, and 300,000 over-the-counter products. Many come with vastly different usage and dosing instructions depending on the patient's age, weight and other risk factors, like bad kidneys.

In addition, four of every five U.S. adults take at least one medication or dietary supplement every day; almost a third take a least five. The more you use, the greater your risk of taking two that interact badly, especially if different doctors prescribed different drugs without knowing what you already take.

Also, Doctors' notoriously bad handwriting causes errors when pharmacists fill prescriptions. Sometimes 10 milligrams may look like 10 micrograms. Sound-alike drug names — the hormone Premarin or the antibiotic Primaxin — can confuse pharmacist or healthcare provider or the patient..

There also are hospital mix-ups involving how the drug is to be administered. Accidentally injecting certain drugs into the spinal canal instead of giving it intravenously is may prove fatal.

Moreover, the instructions given to consumers on how to take their medicine is woefully inadequate, the report concludes. One study found parents gave their children the wrong dose of over-the-counter fever medicines 47 percent of the time.

At Ward & Caggiano we have seen too many healthcare consumers needlessly injured by medication errors. In a trial in Orlando we represented the family of a little Apopka boy who died when his doctors failed to monitor the strong antibiotics that they prescribed. We recommend that you be aggressive in questioning doctors, nurses and pharmacists about all medications, whether for yourself or a loved one. If you have any questions about medication errors, please do not hesitate to call us at 407-244-1212 or contact us online.