The following findings are from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Statistical Brief #164: Characteristics of Adverse Drug Events Originating During the Hospital Stay, 2011.
- The top causes of adverse drug events were steroids (19.7 per 10,000 discharges), antibiotics (12.9 per 10,000 dischargers), opiates/narcotics (11.2 per 10,000 dischargers) and anticoagulants (6.7 per 10,000 discharges) for a total of 50.4 adverse drug events per 10,000 discharges.
- Infants had the lowest rate and people 65 years old and older had the highest rate of drug adverse events across all causes.
- Approximately 0.8 percent of people 65 years old or older experienced a drug adverse event from one of the top four causes during an inpatient stay.
- Female patients had higher rates of adverse drug events involving opiates and narcotics, while male patients had higher rates of adverse events involving anticoagulants.
- Medicare patients had the highest rates of adverse drug events, while Medicaid patients had the lowest rates of drug adverse events.
- Patients treated in private nonprofit hospitals had higher rates of adverse drug events than patients treated in any type of for-profit hospital.
- Patients treated in the Midwest had the highest rates of drug adverse events of all regions in the U.S. Patients in the West had the lowest rates of drug adverse events of all regions.
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