Hospitalisation for adverse events related to drug therapy: incidence, avoidability and costs

Abstract

The DRA rate we found lies around the middle of the range of other published rates. Few DRAs were judged definitely avoidable and over one-third were unavoidable. Nevertheless, the largest proportion were judged possibly avoidable. As the drugs identified in this study are clearly needed in the community, efforts to reduce DRAs must concentrate on education, counselling and monitoring of drug therapy.