Risk of Death from Hospital Medication Errors Are At Highest in July

A group of California researchers have found that every July brings a spike in fatal hospital medication errors, possibly linked to an influx of new medical residents at facilities. 

The results of an analysis of U.S. deaths over the course of a quarter century seem to confirm what some have long called the “July Effect,” an increase in medical mistakes caused by thousands of new doctors taking positions at hospitals. The results of the analysis, performed by researchers from the University of California’s San Diego and Los Angeles campuses, were published online earlier this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Researchers looked for medication errors recorded on U.S. death certificates from 1979 through 2006. What they found was that there was a 10% spike in the number of fatal medication errors in the month of July, unlike any other time of the year. In addition, the spike seemed to be present only in counties with teaching hospitals. Counties without teaching hospitals had no spike in deadly drug mistakes.

Between 1998 and 2005, the number of serious injuries and deaths reported to FDA due to drug mistakes nearly tripled, with injuries going from about 35,000 to 90,000, and reported deaths increasing from about 5,000 annually to 15,000.

According to a 2006 report by the National Academies of Science’s Institute of Medicine, there are about 1.5 million medication errors every year that result in injuries. These mistakes are largely preventable and could be caused by a doctor prescribing the medication incorrectly, the pharmacy filling the wrong dosage or by nurses dispensing a different patient’s drugs.

The researchers involved in the “July Effect” study determined that the spike must be at least partly caused by the introduction of new medical residents. The researchers said that, considering their findings, hospitals should re-evaluate responsibilities assigned to new medical residents, increase the supervision of those residents and increase their education on medication safety.

“Incorporating these changes might reduce both fatal and non-fatal medication errors and thereby reduce the substantial costs associated with medication errors,” the researchers concluded.