The FDA announced a new program to hopefully reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by drug dosage errors. The Safe Use Initiative aims to identify drugs and circumstances that commonly result in misuse of medications which has become an alarmingly large problem. These errors include accidental overdoses, dispensing the wrong medication or wrong dosage and drug quality defects which are estimated to cost up to $4 billion each year. According to a National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report, there are about 1.4 million preventable medication errors each year.
The FDA is calling on doctors and other healthcare professionals to help identify particular drugs and circumstances that repeatedly present problems. Additionally, the FDA is scrutinizing the information provided to patients such as package inserts, labels and instructions from pharmacists, most of which is completely unregulated.
These efforts to improve patient safety from medication errors is long overdue. Easier to read and understand packaging, dosage aids and instructions is a good first step in reducing preventable medical errors.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2010
