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Of importance to all our List-family! Have a care, folks, 'cause we sure don't want any of ya to end up as a statistic! Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] -------------------------------- LONDON (February 28, 1998 01:12 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Deaths due to mistakes in medication in the United States more than doubled between 1983 and 1993, with the sharpest increase coming in deaths among outpatients, according to research published Friday. During that period, the number of deaths from accidental poisoning by drugs and other medicines climbed from 851 to 2,098, said the report published in the Feb. 28 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet. Included in those figures is the number of deaths among outpatients, which increased from 172 to 1,459. In 1983, outpatients were three times more likely than inpatients to die of medication errors, but by 1993 the risk was 6.5 times greater. "Something scary is going on and we should be worried," said said David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California at San Diego, who headed the research team. The group analyzed all U.S. death certificates that listed cause of death as a medication mistake. The certificates did not make clear whether the deaths were caused by a medical professional's error or patient error, the report said. The study did not include deaths caused by natural adverse reactions to medicine, the researchers said. The researchers found that the increase in death rate attributable to medication mistakes is sharper than the increase for any other cause of death other than AIDS, Phillips added. He said the data show the problem is not the medicines themselves, because the same medicines do not cause such increased death rates when they are used on patients in the hospital. "It has to do with the quality control of the way in which it is given or taken or the way in which the patient is monitored," Phillips said. "They were either given the wrong dose, the wrong medicine, or the patient could overdose or mix it." Significant increases in death rates were found with prescription pain killers such as morphine and codeine, Phillips said. But the greatest increase in outpatient death rates was found in cases of anesthesia, where the hike has been fourfold. This indicates patient error cannot be blamed for all the cases, Phillips said. The report said that the number of outpatient visits to doctors increased 75 percent during the period, while inpatient days declined. Phillips suggested a slowing of the trend toward more outpatient care, or tighter control over the quality of outpatient care, such as home visits by doctors or nurses to ensure the patient is taking the medicine properly. Sherrie Kaplan, a social scientist in medicine at Tufts University, told The Associated Press that she was disturbed but not surprised by the California group's findings. "This research raises a lot of questions that need to be answered about who, how and why medication errors are occurring," she said. "We're not teaching people how to use the health care system, we're not preparing patients to be patients," she said. Tom Granatir, a spokesman for the American Hospital Association, which lobbies on behalf of hospitals, noted that it was not clear whether the deaths were related to encounters with medical professionals or whether they were due to voluntary drug abuse. There are also many more medications available now than 10 years ago, which provides more occasion for error, he added.