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Eliminating Preventable Medication Errors

Date: July 28, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance


ELIMINATING PREVENTABLE MEDICATION ERRORS -- (House of Representatives - July 28, 2006)

(Mr. MURPHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, a recent study by the Institute of Medicine reported preventable medication errors injure over 1.5 million patients and cost over $3.5 billion each year. In other studies these costs are even higher. One stated it cost Medicare $29 billion per year in health care costs.

Medication errors include adverse drug reactions or errors of dosage or type of medication. A misspelled drug name, illegible handwriting, or if the physician is not aware of a patient's other prescriptions, these can all lead to problems.

Yesterday, the House passed the Health Information Technology Promotion Act to help doctors and hospitals work together to eliminate drug errors. Computerized prescriptions instantaneously give physicians vital information and double-check all prescriptions to put patient safety first.

To learn more about eliminating preventable medication errors, or other ways we can save lives and save money in health care, I would urge my colleagues to visit my Web site at murphy.house.gov.

http://thomas.loc.gov/

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