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Case-control analysis of the financial cost of medication errors in hospitalized patients.

Pinilla J, Murillo C, Carrasco G, Humet C

University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. jpinilla@dmc.ulpgc.es

The cost of medication errors (MEs), and by extension their impact on the running of hospitals, is generally unknown to hospital managers. This study estimated the financial costs involved in the additional use of hospital resources as a result of MEs. For this we used a database covering 20,014 hospital admissions, with clinical and personal information about each patient, the costs related to his/her stay, and physicians' prescriptions. Analyses were carried out using cases and control techniques to calculate the additional cost of MEs. During the study period, 2001, the analysis indicated that the MEs analyzed caused an additional 303 days of hospital stay, with an overall annual cost of nearly 6,000 euros. Our study confirms that MEs are a costly reality. The presence of MEs doubled the cost per patient.

Published 10 March 2006 in Eur J Health Econ, 7(1): 66-71.
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