Researchers used medical error data, hospital data and U.S. payor claims to calculate the number of adverse drug events associated with injectable medications and the resulting costs. The data sources covered different ranges of years; the largest range was 1990 to 2011, and no source covered data before 1990.
The authors estimated 1.2 million hospitalizations are affected by preventable adverse drug events associated with injectable medications. These events cause an annual increase in payor costs of $2.7 billion to $5.1 billion, or $600,000 per hospital, according to the study. In addition, medical professional liability costs associated with injectable medications totals $300 million to $610 million annually, with an average cost of $72,000 per U.S. hospital.
Insulin had the highest risk per administration for a preventable adverse drug event, but errors in anti-infective, narcotic/analgesic, anticoagulant/thrombolytic and anxiolytic/sedative injectable medications harmed more patients.
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