Patient Safety

Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) and infections are among the most common adverse patient safety events. Many of these events and deaths are preventable.

Medication errors, drug reactions, overdoses and allergic reactions are all types of ADEs. Fortunately, many ADEs are preventable, can impact positive health outcomes and decrease healthcare costs.

• 6 percent of American adults, 65 years and older, take at least one medication and 40.7 percent of those have five or more prescriptions
• Insulin, anticoagulants and opioids are considered ‘high alert’ medications for ADEs
• 52 percent of ADEs for outpatient settings were preventable and 45 percent of ADEs for inpatient settings were preventable

Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) Infection is a major health threat and causes life-threatening diarrhea that is usually a side-effect of taking antibiotics. In addition:

• C. diff causes almost half a million illnesses in the United States each year
• People on antibiotics are 7 to 10 times more likely to get C. diff while on medication and during the month after
• 1 in 6 patients who get C. diff will get it again in the subsequent 2-8 weeks
• 1 in 11 people over age 65 died within a month of diagnosis of a healthcare- associated C. diff infection

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