Key result
Preventable perioperative medication errors in the operating room are estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system an additional $5.33 billion annually.
Why the study?
The additional annual cost to the U.S. healthcare system attributable to preventable medication errors in the operating room was unknown.
What is the additional annual cost to the U.S. healthcare system attributable to preventable medication errors in the operating room?
What is the additional annual cost to the U.S. healthcare system attributable to preventable medication errors in the operating room?
Preventable medication errors in the operating room impose a massive financial burden on the U.S. healthcare system, estimated at $5.33 billion annually.
Highlights need for improved perioperative medication safety; leaves open which interventions reduce errors and costs.
The purpose of this report was to estimate the additional annual cost to the U.S. healthcare system attributable to preventable medication errors (MEs) in the operating room. The ME types were iteratively grouped by their associated harm (or potential harm) into 13 categories, and we determined the incidence of operations involving each ME category (number of operations involving each category/total number of operations): (1) delayed or missed required perioperative antibiotic (1.4% of operations); (2) prolonged hemodynamic swings (7.6% of operations); (3) untreated postoperative pain >4/10 (18.9% of operations); (4) residual neuromuscular blockade (2.9% of operations); (5) oxygen saturation <90% due to ME (1.8% of operations); (6) delayed emergence (1.1% of operations); (7) untreated new onset intraoperative cardiac arrhythmia (0.72% of operations); (8) medication documentation errors (7.6% of operations); (9) syringe swaps (5.8% of operations); (10) presumed hypotension with inability to obtain a blood pressure reading (2.2% of operations); (11) potential for bacterial contamination due to expired medication syringes (8.3% of operations); (12) untreated bradycardia <40 beats/min (1.1% of operations); and (13) other (13.0% of operations). Through a PubMed search, we determined the likelihood that the ME category would result in downstream patient harm such as surgical site infection or acute kidney injury, and the additional fully allocated cost of care (in 2021 U.S. dollars) for each potential downstream patient harm event. We then estimated the cost of the MEs across the U.S. healthcare system by scaling the number of MEs to the total number of annual operations in the United States (N = 19,800,000). The total estimated additional fully allocated annual cost of care due to perioperative MEs was $5.33 billion U.S. dollars.
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Langlieb et al. (2023) studied Perioperative medication errors (n=19,800,000). Preventable medication errors in the operating room was evaluated on Total estimated additional fully allocated annual cost of care due to perioperative medication errors. Preventable perioperative medication errors in the operating room are estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system an additional $5.33 billion annually.
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