Confusing drug names is one of the most common causes of medication errors.
Similarity as a risk factor in drug-name confusion errors, Medical Care, 1999
More than 33,000 trademarked and 8,000 nonproprietary medication names were reported in the United States alone in 2004.
Drug name confusion: Preventing medication errors, FDA Consumer Magazine, July-August 2005
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2005/405_confusion.html
Between November 2003 and July 2005, the United Kingdom National Patient Safety Agency reported 236 incidents and near-misses related to missing wristbands or wristbands with incorrect information.
Wristbands for hospital inpatients improves safety, National Patient Safety Agency, November 2005
http://www.npsa.nhs.uk/site/media/documents/1440_Safer_Patient_Identification_SPN.pdf
Breakdown in communication is the leading root cause of Sentinel Events reported to The Joint Commission between 1995 and 2006.
Root causes of Sentinel Events, all categories, The Joint Commission, 2006
www.jointcommission.org/NR/rdonlyres/FA465646-5F5F-4543-AC8F-E8AF6571E372/0/root_cause_se.jpg
In Australia, of 25,000 to 30,000 preventable adverse events that led to permanent disability, 11 percent were due to communication issues, in contrast to six percent due to inadequate skill levels of practitioners.
14,000 preventable deaths in Australia, British Medical Journal, 1995
Wrong site procedures, including wrong side, wrong organ, wrong site, wrong implant, and wrong person, is an infrequent, though not "rare" event as evidenced by a steady increase in the number of reported cases. For example, in the United States 88 cases were reported to The Joint Commission in 2005 and several other reporting bodies have noted numerous cases annually as well.
Lessons learned: Wrong site surgery, The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event Alert, August 1998
http://www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_6.htm
Medication errors harm an estimated 1.5 million people and kill several thousand each year in the United States, costing the nation at least $3.5 billion annually.
Preventing medication errors, Institute of Medicine, 2006
Up to 46 percent of medication errors occur when new orders are written at patient admission or discharge.
Reconcile medications at all transition points, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
http://www.ihi.org/IHI/Topics/PatientSafety/MedicationSystems/Changes/Reconcile+Medications+at+All+Transition+Points.htm
Nine cases of tubing misconnections involving seven adults and two infants have been reported to The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event database, resulting in eight deaths and one permanent loss of function.
Tubing misconnections: A persistent and potentially deadly occurrence, The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event Alert, April 2006
In the United Kingdom, between 2001 and 2004 there were three reports of death; and from 1997-2004, there were four reports of harm or near misses following wrong route errors when oral liquid medicines, feeds and flushes, were administered intravenously.
Medication errors: Increased funding can cut risks, Pharmacy in Practice, 1997
Department of Health. Building a safer NHS for patients, Improving medication safety, 2004
http://www.dh.gov.uk/
A mathematical model developed by the World Health Organization suggests that in developing and transitional countries in the year 2000, reuse of injection devices accounted for an estimated 22 million new cases of Hepatitis B infection (about one-third of the total): two million cases of Hepatitis C infection (about 40 percent of the total): and about a quarter-million cases of HIV infection about five percent of the total) for the whole world. These infections acquired in 2000 alone are expected to lead to an estimated nine million years of life lost, and this is adjusted for disability, between the year 2000 and the year 2030.
Testimony of Dr YvanHutin, project leader for the Safe Injection Global Network at the Senate Committee hearing,
Examining solutions to the problem of health care transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa, Focusing on injection safety, blood safety, safe obstetrical delivery practices, and quality assurance in medical care, July 31, 2003
While there is significant variation between countries, the World Health Organization estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 18 percent of injections are given with reused syringes or needles that have not been sterilized. However, unsafe medical injections are believed to occur most frequently in South Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific regions. Together, these account for 88 percent of all injections administered with reused, unsterilized equipment.
Addo-Yobo, E. et al., Oral amoxicillin versus injectable penicillin for severe pneumonia in children aged 3 to 59 months: A randomized multicentre equivalency study, Lancet, 2004
It is estimated that at any one time, over 1.4 million people worldwide are suffering from infections acquired in hospitals.
WHO Programme for the control of hospital infections, Chemiotherapia, 1987
Nosocomial infections in adult intensive-care unit, Lancet, 2003
Hospital-aquired infections occur worldwide and affect both developed and developing countries. In developed countries, between five and 10 percent of patients acquire one or more infections and approximately 15 to 40 percent of those admitted to critical care are thought to be affected.
Making hospitals safer: The need for a global strategy for infection control in healthcare settings,World Hospital Health Service, 2004
In the United States, one in every 136 patients becomes severely ill as a result of acquiring an infection in hospital.
United States health really the best in the world?, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000
In England, 100,000 cases of hospital acquired infection are estimated to cost the National Health Service a minimum of one billion pounds per year.
The Socio-economic burden of hospital acquired infection, Public Health Laboratory Service, 1999