FDA's Safe Use (Drug) Initiative pt.1

Tens of millions of people in the United States depend on prescription and OTC medications to sustain their health—as many as 3 billion prescriptions are written annually. Too many people, however, suffer unnecessary injuries, and some die as a result of preventable medication errors.The mission of the Safe Use Initiative is to create and facilitate public and private collaborations within the healthcare community. The goal of the Safe Use Initiative is to reduce preventable harm by identifying specific, preventable medication risks and developing, implementing and evaluating cross-sector interventions with partners who are committed to safe medication use.

In the United States, responsibility for managing medication risks is shared by many parties including :

• Federal agencies, such as FDA, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others
• Drug developers, manufacturers, and distributors
• Pharmacies, hospitals, and other healthcare entities (including those operated by the Federal government and the states)
• Healthcare professionals, including physicians and physician assistants, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and their professional societies
• State regulatory bodies, including professional licensure and oversight boards
• Patients, caregivers, consumers, and organizations representing their interests

Despite efforts by all parties, each year medications cause hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths. Adverse events from drug use result in more than 4 million visits to emergency departments, doctors’ offices, or other outpatient settings annually and 117,000 hospitalizations each year. A report on long‐term care facilities projected nearly 10 adverse drug events per month for every 100 residents. There is also a high incidence of adverse drug events in hospitals; reports range from just over 2 to 6 adverse drug events per 100 admissions.

The long‐term care study previously mentioned estimated that 40 percent of the adverse events, and 60 percent of the serious, life‐threatening and fatal adverse events, were preventable. The IOM estimates that 400,000 hospitalized patients experience a preventable adverse drug event annually. Adding in nursing home care and care in other ambulatory settings, at least 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events

What does all this mean?....to be continued in my upcoming blogs

References:

1. Zhan C, Arispe I, Kelley E, et al., Ambulatory Care Visits for Treating Adverse Drug Effects in the United States, 1995–2001, Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, July 2005, Vol 31
2. Budnitz DA, Pollock DA, Weidenback, KN, et al., National Surveillance of Emergency Department Visits for Outpatient Adverse Drug Events, Journal of the American Medical Association, October 18, 2006, Vol 296
3. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Preventing Medication Errors, National Academies Press, 2007
4. The US FDA