Study: One in ten patients gets drug error at Mass. community hospitals

One in every 10 patients admitted to six Massachusetts community hospitals suffered serious and avoidable medication mistakes, according to a report from two nonprofit groups trying to get all hospitals in the state to install a computerized prescription ordering system. Previous studies in large academic hospitals that also lacked computerized systems found such medication errors occurred less than half as often, said the study's author. Researchers declined to release the names of the six Massachusetts hospitals that were part of the report.