What are adverse drug events?
I recently came across some statistics that I found surprising. I have observed through the years that drugs are overused and often come with negative side effects. I knew it was a big problem, but the statistics I found were still surprising. What I am talking about is adverse drug events (ADEs). Now an ADE is basically any negative event associated with the use of a drug, which includes both a properly prescribed and used drug as well as improperly used drugs.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is supposed to “improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.” It is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services and one of its main focuses is funding research to help improve healthcare quality. On the AHRQ website there is an article “Reducing and Preventing Adverse Drug Events To Decrease Hospital Costs” which discusses adverse drug events and some ways to help prevent them. This article was published in March of 2001.
How common are ADEs?
A statistic mentioned in this article is that more than 770,000 injuries and deaths occur EACH YEAR in hospitals due to ADEs. These estimates are from the late 1990’s and really only includes ADEs in hospitals. Without other information, it is difficult to estimate how prevalent ADEs really are in the US. Patients who suffered an ADE had longer hospital stays that cost more. Also it is important to note that it was suggested that 28 to 95 percent of ADEs could be prevented. However, statistics from 2004 tell a different story.
Are most ADEs from errors?
Information from hospital stays in 2004 was analyzed to get statistics on ADEs in hospitals. The statistical report was done by AHRQ as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. The report noted that in 2004, 1,211,100 hospital stays had an ADE. This was equivalent to about 3.1% of hospital stays in 2004. What was more surprising was that 90.3 percent (1,093,600 hospital stays) of the ADEs were adverse effects of drugs. This means that the drugs were properly prescribed and administered but there was still an adverse reaction. These are the so called ‘non-preventable’ ADEs.
Conclusion
Looking at these numbers, we see that apparently there was a reduction in the percent of ‘preventable’ ADEs from the original estimates of 28 to 95 percent. However, the overall number of ADEs in hospital patients went up! And to think that over 90 percent were not preventable but a ‘side effect’ of the drug. So over a million injuries or deaths occurred in 2004 due to the use of drugs in hospitals, even though the drugs were properly prescribed and used. Why do we not hear about this on the news? If you break that down it would be 2,996 cases of properly used drugs causing injuries or death per day!
If you find this shocking and think more people should know about the danger associated with using even properly prescribed drugs, please share. Also if you are looking for a natural approach to unlocking the body’s ability to heal, try chiropractic.
References
Reducing and Preventing Adverse Drug Events To Decrease Hospital Costs: Research in Action, Issue 1. March 2001. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/factsheets/errors-safety/aderia/index.html
Elixhauser, A. and Owens, P. (AHRQ). Adverse Drug Events in U.S. Hospitals, 2004. HCUP Statistical Brief #29. April 2007. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb29.pdf
