Published costs of Medication errors leading to preventable adverse Drug events in US Hospitals

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: There is little understanding on the true cost of operating room time in Canada despite the fact that surgical care is paid for by a single payer facing increasing cost constraints. The objective of the review was to analyze how OR costs are currently conceived of in Canadian hospitals. Additionally, a micro costing approach was used to estimate the actual cost using a bottom-up approach. METHODS: A literature search was conducted to determine how Canadian hospitals perceived the value of one hour of operating time. Studies satisfying the defined criteria were compared in terms of methodology and inclusion and exclusion of specific resources in their perception of their institution's OR expenditure. All costs were adjusted to 2014 Canadian dollars. Additionally, we conducted an independent bottom-up micro-costing analysis of Canadian operating room time. Completion of the literature review prior to micro costing ensured a robust and comprehensive approach was used. Costs were obtained using peer-reviewed literature and from a large Canadian hospital network. RESULTS: Specific search and inclusion criteria resulted in the inclusion of 5 studies in our analysis. The cost of OR time ranged greatly from $621.60 to $2288.94 per hour. All studies obtained the cost of OR time using a top-down case-costing approach informed with data from their respective finance departments. Each study was conducted at a different Canadian hospital and OR costs were perceived in strikingly different ways. Additionally, many of the studies lacked sufficient methodological details providing a challenge when comparing approaches. The bottom-up micro case-costing approach incorporated more than 30 individual costs and resulted in an OR hourly cost of $1200. CONCLUSIONS: In Canada, there is little consensus between institutions of how to capture the costs of OR time. A bottom-up micro costing approach allowed for a different perspective and a more detailed analysis.OBJECTIVES: In less developed nations public resources are scarce and medicines are often not adequate, nor accessible for much of the population. Only limited quantitative data are available for analysis of the pharmaceutical expenditure in Mongolia. METHODS: Retrospective data collection on pharmaceutic expenditure from government issued reports were collected and analysed for the period of six years starting from 2009 until 2014. RESULTS: The gross domestic product (GDP) was 11.52 billion USD in 2013 in Mongolia and the proportion of total health expenditure (THE) was 566.5 billion Mongolian National Tugrug (MNT) or 301.4 million USD. For 2014, the total pharmaceutical expenditure (TPE) was 81.3 billion MNT or 11.6% of the THE. The public pharmaceutical expenditure (PPE) per capita was 28727.9 MNT or 15.3 USD in 2013. Mongolia is a developing country and the public expenditure on pharmaceuticals per capita was in the mid-range of developing country expenditure. The funding source of pharmaceuticals in Mongolia was analysed and the external source played a minimal ro...

Factors Contributing to Perioperative Medication Errors: A Systematic Literature Review

“…A single ME can cause harm and lead to increased health care costs. Medication error–related costs per hospital range from $600,000 to $5.6 million annually . An ME is defined as “any error occurring in the medication use process.” The medication administration process encompasses several subprocesses including prescribing, processing, administering, and monitoring effects.…”

Medication administration errors and related deviations from safe practice: an observational study

“…Global statistics demonstrated a need for addressing medication administration errors as medication errors not only lead to preventable costs of up to $26 billion to the United States alone (Pan et al . ) but also to patient death as Leufer and Cleary‐Holdforth () explain that approximately 20% of all deaths due to adverse events in hospitals of the United Kingdom occur due to medication errors. A further 11% of medication errors in Australia were rated to hold severe consequences for patients (Roughead et al .…”

How much of US health care spending provides direct care or benefit to patients?

“…Adverse drug events cause more than 1 million emergency visits and 280,000 hospitalizations each year . The in‐hospital national cost of preventable adverse drug events ranged from $600 million to $4.2 billion in 2014 . This means potential savings of $600 million to $4.3 billion (CPI).…”

“…51 The in-hospital national cost of preventable adverse drug events ranged from $600 million to $4.2 billion in 2014. 22 This means potential savings of $600 million to $4.3 billion (CPI). For ambulatory patients, the cost of preventable drug events varied from $887 million in 2000 to $3 billion in 2006 23,24 ; therefore, savings of $1.5 billion to $4.0 billion (CPI) are possible.…”