Adverse Drugs Events

Summary

ADE is an injury resulting from the use of a drug. ADEs in hospitals can be caused by medication errors, such as accidental overdoses or providing a drug to the wrong patient, or by adverse drug reactions, such as allergic reactions or excessive bleeding after treatment with the intended dose of a drug that prevents dangerous blood clots.
Goal: The Partnership for Patients estimates that 50 percent of the 1.9 million ADEs that occur in hospitals each year are preventable.The goal set for hospitals is to reduce preventable ADEs by 50 percent by 2013. This would prevent 830,000 ADEs.