Taking the wrong pills, taking too many, getting mixed up prescriptions—a new study says people are making more mistakes than ever when it comes to medications. According to the FDA, about 1.3 million people are injured by medication errors every year in the U.S., but some of those cases are far more serious than others. This study, published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, took a look at data collected by poison control centers across the U.S., then counted all of the serious medication errors that occurred outside of health care facilities. The researchers found that the number of life-threatening cases doubled between the years 2000 and 2012, with 6,855 instances in 2012 alone, and about one third of the cases resulted in hospital admissions. What’s worse is a good portion of them were easily preventable. Keep in mind, this data subset comes from only poison control centers, so it doesn’t quite illustrate the severity of the trend. Jay Schauben, former president of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, explains to NPR that not everyone calls a poison control center when there’s a medication error. And Nichole Hodges, the study’s lead author, says these numbers are likely an underestimate of the true number, and that dangerous medication errors that occur at home are likely under-counted. What do these errors look like? It could be someone taking the wrong dosage of a medication. Or someone accidentally taking the wrong pill. Other errors include not waiting long enough to take a second dose, pharmacists dispensing medicine at the wrong concentration, and kids taking other people’s medicine (kids aged 6 to 12 were the most likely to take the wrong medication). All simple human mistakes that could cost someone their life. Hodges, who is a research scientist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, suggests you have child locks on your pillboxes and keep them out of reach and out of sight. If a child is supposed to take some medication, always help them so you know they’re not taking the wrong pills. You can also keep a written log of when you take or give medications, along with the dosage, and avoid using regular ol’ kitchen spoons to measure medicines. Source
