New research on hospital treatment raises concern among
parents, as it shows that medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses, and bad drug
reactions harm roughly one of 15 children while being hospitalized.
Researchers, led by Paul Sharek of
The study found one in 15 hospitalized children, or more
than 540,000 annually, are a subject to a drug mistake or adverse reaction. Nearly
97 percent of the identified adverse drug events resulted in mild, temporary
harm mostly involving nausea and pruritis, the study said. However, only 3.7
percent of these events were found in traditional hospital reports.
Other findings of the study included: 22 percent of all
adverse drug events were deemed preventable, 17.8 percent could have been
identified earlier, and 16.8 percent could have been mitigated more effectively.
The findings highlight the need for “aggressive,
evidence-based prevention strategies to decrease the substantial risk for
medication-related harm to our pediatric inpatient population,” the researchers
said, according to the Associated Press.
“This gives us some valuable insight into the frequency of
medication-related harm. The number is larger purely because of the way we
collected the information before. But most of those who work in children’s
hospitals realize that because of the complexity of children’s health care in
the United States harm occurs,” Sharek said.
The study has once again sparked interest in the accidental
life-threatening heparin overdoses in a
Actually, the actor praised the new study and encouraged
parents to ask questions and stay in-tune with what their kids are being given
in hospital.
“Every time a caregiver comes into the room, I would check
and ask the nurse what they’re giving them and why,” Quaid said quoted by the
AP.
The study was published Monday in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.