Medical errors can occur in any healthcare setting: be that a hospital, clinic, pharmacy, nursing home, or a patient’s home. Such errors, which may involve surgery, a diagnostic procedure, a lab result, a faulty piece of medical equipment, or medication, can lead to serious consequences.
In the latter case, at least 1.5 million Americans suffer every year due to a medication error, with 91% of those errors due to a misprescription.
In this study, we’ll look at the main drug types involved in medication errors, who’s most at risk, common types of medication error, and the states with the worst pharmacy disciplinary records. We’ll also consider some of the associated contributory factors and what might be done to improve a problem that often has fatal consequences.
Medical Errors: Main Drug Types
In fact, between 7,000 and 9,000 Americans die every year due to medication/prescription errors, with a further 500,000 hospitalized due to adverse effects.
It’s a problem that especially affects older adults (65+) due to their being prescribed disproportionate amounts of medication. But which drugs are most involved when it comes to medical misprescription or mismanagement?
Some drug types are especially prevalent when we consider medication error patterns. This is due to their widespread use and tendency to cause serious side effects.
Antibiotics are the drugs most frequently involved in medication errors (20% of all reported examples). This highlights how often they’re prescribed, and the implicit risk factors regarding their incorrect dosage or administration.
Antipsychotic medications are also heavily involved in medication errors (19% of cases). This emphasizes the urgent need for more careful monitoring of such drugs, especially regarding vulnerable recipients, such as those suffering from mental health conditions.
Central nervous system (CNS) drugs (medications for seizures, anxiety, and sleep disorders) account for 16% of errors, mainly due to complex dosing schedules and volatility when interacting with other drugs.
Cardiovascular medications, essential for managing conditions like high blood pressure and heart disease, are involved in 15% of all errors, which highlights the ongoing challenge of safely managing a chronic condition.
And, while opioids make up a smaller percentage (7%), they still represent a high medication error risk, due to their involvement in episodes of misuse, addiction, and overdose.
Overall, the data underscores the importance of precisely prescribing, dispensing, and administering medication. This is especially true for high-risk drugs commonly used in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and outpatient settings. And it’s always important to remember which individuals are most at risk of a prescription error.
Who’s Most At Risk From A Medication Error?
Prescription mistakes don’t affect all patients equally. Some groups, due to their age, the complexity of the care they need, or the condition of their health, face significantly higher-than-average risks of harm.
Older adults are particularly vulnerable when it comes to medication errors. Nearly 90% of adults aged 65+ regularly take at least one prescription drug, with nearly 40% taking five or more (known as polypharmacy).
Research shows that patients taking five or more medications are 30% more likely to experience a medication error. For those aged 75+, that risk jumps to 38%.
People who live with a mental health disorder are also vulnerable. Antipsychotic drugs, which demand precise dosing and monitoring, are the issue in nearly 1 in 5 medication errors. To make things worse, between 26% and 49% of people who suffer with severe mental illness misuse their prescribed medications; this is either unintentional or due to side effects, confusion, or a lack of supervision.
Children and adult patients suffering from chronic illnesses, like heart disease, epilepsy, and diabetes, are also highly vulnerable. This is due to their need for long-term medication management, carefully adjusted doses, and clashing drug effects across multiple prescriptions.
For all these examples, even minor mistakes can cause serious problems, especially regarding potentially dangerous or volatile medications.
Common Types of Medication Error
Medication errors are a persistent and dangerous healthcare issue across multiple settings and scenarios. The most commonly reported hospital medication error is administering a drug at the wrong time, which accounts for 33.6% of incidents.
Medication taken at the wrong time can prevent it from working properly: this is especially true for drugs that need to be administered at precise intervals, like antibiotics or blood thinners.
Wrong dosages are the issue in 24.1% of cases, while 17.2% of medication errors involve administering the wrong medication altogether, usually due to poor communication, mislabeling, or drugs with barely distinguishable names.
In pharmacies, errors normally involve incorrect drug dispensation. Dispensing the wrong medication (or the wrong strength, quantity, or dosage) is a well-documented mistake.
Such errors are especially problematic because the affected patient may not realize there’s a problem until it’s too late. Look-alike/sound-alike (LASA) errors, where drugs with similar names or packages are mistakenly administered, are among the most dangerous and prevalent examples of this, and account for up to 25% of all reported errors.
Medication errors at home, especially when it comes to pediatric patients, add another layer of concern. Mistakes made by caregivers range between 2% and 33%, and reflect challenges in administering the right doses and correctly interpreting labels.
These numbers confirm that the most vulnerable (children, the elderly, and those managing multiple prescriptions) face the biggest risks regarding medication errors.
Overall, the data reinforces the critical importance of safety protocols, proper labeling, staff training, and patient education. Whether it’s a busy hospital or a cluttered pharmacy counter, the consequences of medication errors are often severe. Fixing the problem demands vigilance at every level of care.
Pharmacists and Disciplinary Action Issues
In 2024, a worrying number of pharmacist disciplinary actions were reported across the U.S, with a concentrated cluster of incidents in just ten states.
Texas featured the most adverse action reports (127), followed by Michigan (114) and Ohio (106), numbers that highlight significant issues in states with large healthcare systems and high prescription volumes.
California (86) and Nevada (85) also reported notably high numbers, which raises questions about regulatory oversight and pharmacist workload in densely populated or fast-growing regions.
Sprawling states Florida (72) and New York (61) both feature large senior populations and complex medication needs. Kansas (56), Kentucky (41), and Massachusetts (39) also saw elevated disciplinary activity, proof that prescription safety challenges extend beyond major metropolitan areas.
These figures highlight the need for stronger support systems, more robust error prevention protocols, and more staff to help avoid potentially lethal medication practices. This is especially true in high-risk states where the use of pharmacy services continues to rise.
The Main Causes of Medication Misprescriptions
Many eminently avoidable prescription errors occur because safety protocols and support systems aren’t always followed properly. One of the most well-known issues is illegible prescriptions, which can cause confusion and misinterpretation.
Prescription errors may also be due to missing patient information (like drug allergies, lab results, or details about other medications). Without key information, there’s a good chance that a prescription may involve the wrong drug or dosage, especially if a treatment plan is overly complicated or unclear.
Sometimes, the issue is a matter of logistics. For example, a prescription may never reach a pharmacy, or the patient may never collect. And a medication sample provided by a doctor can be dangerous if it’s not properly documented or reviewed for safety regarding a patient’s other medications.
Staff shortages also significantly increase the risk of a medication error. 80% of pharmacists have confirmed that low staffing issues directly contributed to a medication error within the past year. Insufficient staff numbers can mean that essential safety steps like double-checking doses or verifying a patient’s history might be missed.
The Fatal Effects of Prescription Errors
Prescription errors remain one of the main causes of harm in modern healthcare, with serious consequences for both patients and the medical system.
Every year in the U.S., prescription errors kill between 7,000 and 9,000 people, while an additional 1.5 million Americans suffer adverse effects. Around 500,000 patients subsequently need (often lengthy) hospital treatment; thereafter, they may also suffer increased healthcare costs and irreversible complications.
Common mistakes, such as prescribing the wrong drug, administering the wrong dose, or overlooking drug interactions, can cause myriad serious health issues. These include acute kidney failure, uncontrolled seizures, internal bleeding, respiratory depression, stroke, cardiac arrest, and severe allergic reactions like anaphylaxis.
For patients suffering from chronic conditions (like diabetes, epilepsy, or heart disease), even small changes in medication can lead to emergencies like diabetic coma or hypertensive crisis.
Among older adults and those taking multiple prescriptions (polypharmacy patients), errors often cause cognitive decline, falls, or drug toxicity due to the body’s decreased ability to metabolize some medications.
Mental health patients are also extremely vulnerable. The incorrect administration of antipsychotics or mood stabilizers can worsen psychiatric symptoms or cause harmful side effects like tremors, psychosis, or suicidal thoughts. The emotional and psychological impact can be severe: patients may lose trust in the healthcare system, and providers involved with medication errors often experience guilt, anxiety, and even burnout. And there’s also the economic cost to consider.
The Economic Impact of Prescription Errors
The U.S. healthcare system bears the economic brunt of medication errors. The estimated annual cost of medication-related harm exceeds $20 billion, a figure driven by readmissions, legal claims, and additional care. As such, prescription errors represent not just a clinical concern but a major and costly public health issue.
And if we factor in lost productivity and long-term care needs, the nationwide burden may reach $77 billion per year. Injectable drug errors alone add between $2.7 and $5.1 billion to the annual U.S. healthcare spend.
These financial consequences reinforce the need for improved medication safety protocols, smarter prescribing systems, and greater patient education. Mistakes not only harm the individuals involved; they add extra pressure to an already stretched healthcare system.
Medication Errors: A Summary, And Potential Solutions To Issues
Prescription and medication errors are one of the most persistent and preventable threats to patient safety in the American healthcare system. Every year, over 1.5 million Americans experience a medication-related error that causes harm, with an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 deaths directly linked to these mistakes.
Worryingly, 91% of all medication errors happen during prescription. This highlights how vulnerable patients are, even before their medication reaches the pharmacy counter or hospital bedside.
These errors happen in hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, nursing homes, and in patients’ homes. And while anyone can be affected, older adults, people with mental health conditions, children, and patients with chronic illnesses are especially vulnerable. Nearly 40% of people aged 65+ take five or more medications, and those on five or more drugs are 30% more likely to suffer a medication error. That figure rises to 38% for those over 75.
Certain types of medication are more likely to be involved in errors. Antibiotics account for 20% of all reported prescription mistakes, with antipsychotic medications (19%), anti-seizure and sleep medications (16%), and cardiovascular medications (15%) also prevalent. Though opioids make up only 7% of these errors, their high misuse and overdose risk make even such a small percentage extremely troubling.
In terms of different types of medication error, incorrectly timed administering of drugs accounts for over a third (33.6%) in hospital settings, followed by incorrect doses (24.1%) and administering the wrong drug (17.2%). In pharmacies, dispensing errors (such as the wrong strength, quantity, or dose) are common.
Look-alike/sound-alike (LASA) medication errors represent a quarter (25%) of all reported cases in both hospitals and retail pharmacy settings. Additionally, pediatric home medication errors range anywhere between 2% and 33%, depending on caregiver understanding and labeling clarity.
17.2% of medication errors involve administering the wrong medication altogether, usually due to poor communication, mislabeling, or drugs with barely distinguishable names
A 2024 review of U.S. pharmacist disciplinary actions emphasizes the issue. Pharmacists in Texas (127), Michigan (114), Ohio (106), and California (86) were subject to the highest number of adverse reports.
These states often cater to large or aging populations, while dealing with high prescription volumes and understaffed healthcare systems, all factors that can lead to a disproportionate number of mistakes.
Staffing shortages and burnout exacerbate the problem. A recent national survey found that 80% of pharmacists cite short-staffing issues as direct contributors to medication errors in their workplace. When safety checks are rushed or skipped, small oversights can quickly become serious medical emergencies.
The economic impact is staggering. Medication-related errors cost U.S. hospitals over $20 billion annually. The total economic burden (including legal claims, readmissions, and lost productivity) is around $77 billion per year, including $2.7 billion and $5.1 billion caused by injectable drug errors alone.
Ultimately, medication errors affect all aspects of care, cost billions of dollars every year, and needlessly kill thousands. Preventing medication errors is about more than individual providers and demands significant changes: better prescription technology; improved communication systems; clearer labels; greater public awareness; and increased support for frontline healthcare professionals.
Only by confronting and revolutionizing each of those factors can the U.S. significantly limit the human and financial toll of medication errors.