The U.S. Institute of Medicine  estimates more than 1.5 million Americans are harmed every year by medication mistakes.(Xinhua Photo)

    BEIJING, July 21(Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report Thursday on medication errors in which it conservatively estimated that more than 1.5 million Americans are harmed every year by medication mistakes.

    In 2000, the IOM surprised people when it estimated that medical mistakes kill as many as 98,000 American hospital patients each year.

    The errors take place every day in hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices, nursing homes and pharmacies, the report said, costing society at least 3.5 billion dollars a year.

    The report added on average, a hospital patient is subject to at least one medication error every day as he or she is in the hospital.

    ¡°This was interesting,¡± said Michael Cohen, an author of the report, "In a one-month period, there were 74 times when a nurse walked into the wrong patient's room, scanned the patient's wrist band, and was alerted to the fact that they were not with the right patient. That's an amazing number of people that may have gotten the drug that wasn't intended for them!"

    The IOM panel wants hospitals to have plans to computerize their prescribing systems by 2008 and to start using them by 2010.

    The report has plenty of advice for others. For instance, it said the drug industry and the Food and Drug Administration should clean up the confusion of look-alike and sound-alike drug names and simplify labels and packages.  Enditem