Oct. 4 deadline for comments on plan for ADE prevention

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is calling for public review and comments on its draft plan to reduce adverse drug events that are preventable. The deadline is Friday, Oct. 4 to email feedback to ADE@hhs.gov.

The National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention focuses on 3 types of ADEs that are considered to be high targets-anticoagulants, diabetes agents, and opioids-due to being common, clinically significant, preventable, and measureable, according to the report.

The primary ADE of concern for anticoagulants is bleeding, for diabetes agents is hypoglycemia, and for opioids is accidental overdoses/oversedation/respiratory depression.

Approximately one third of all adverse events in the hospital are caused by ADEs, resulting in 2 million hospital stays each year and prolonged hospital stays of up to 4.6 days.

“ADEs impose a huge financial burden on annual health care expenditures, costing up to $5.6 million per hospital. Depending on the type of ADE, overall ADE costs range from $677 to over $9,000 per patient. National estimates suggest that ADEs contribute an additional $3.5 billion dollars to U.S. health care costs,” according to the report.

Those individuals who are aged 65 years and older experience the highest rates of ADEs and are 7 times more likely than younger individuals to require hospitalization from an ADE.

The Federal Interagency Steering Committee, formed in September 2012 to develop the national action plan, established 3 workgroups to focus on the 3 drug classes and develop approaches for surveillance, evidence-based prevention tools, incentives and oversight, and research.

“The implementation of these strategies is expected to result in safer and higher quality health care services, reduced health care costs, informed and engaged consumers, and ultimately, improved health outcomes,” according to HHS.