ADE: Adverse Drug Events

Why We Want to Prevent ADE

Adverse drug events are injuries stemming from medication use. Adverse drug events occur in vast numbers every year in both inpatient and outpatient settings. ADEs cause more than 770,000 deaths per year.

According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, ADEs affect around 2 million hospital stays every year and account for roughly 33 percent of all adverse events in a hospital setting. ADEs make up the largest category of adverse events experienced by patients in a hospital setting. In an outpatient setting, ADEs involve 1 million visits to the emergency department and more than 100,000 hospital admissions.

ADEs are preventable in both settings. ADEs lead to increased morbidity and mortality, prolonged hospitalizations and higher costs. A 2007 report found that between 380,000 and 450,000 preventable ADEs occurred in United States hospitals.

NJHIIN is focusing on three high-risk classes of medications in order to reduce adverse drug events: opioids (pain killers), anticoagulants (blood thinners) and hypoglycemic (lower blood sugars).

Success Within New Jersey Hospitals

Compared to baseline, New Jersey's hospitals have reduced ADEs by 55 percent, avoided 3,122 potential ADEs and saved $9,367,446 in unnecessary healthcare costs.

Our Goals Moving Ahead

By September 2018, each participating NJHIIN hospital will reduce ADEs by at least 20 percent or sustain a rate of zero.

Resources

NJHIIN Webinars

NJHIIN Opioid Stewardship 101 Series

Opioid Stewardship 101: Focus on Leadership and Team Engagement - Feb. 8, 2019
Speaker: Carol Forster, MD, physician director of pharmacy & therapeutics/medication safety at the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group
Opioid Stewardship 101: Helping Providers do the Right Thing; Guidance, Clinical Support, Measurement - Feb. 25, 2019
Speaker: Scott Weiner, MD, MPH, attending emergency physician and director of the Comprehensive Opioid Response and Education (B-CORE) program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston
Opioid Stewardship 101: Medication-Assisted Treatment Program-Planning, Education, and Implementation (Part I) - Mar. 8, 2019
Speaker: Jeanmarie Perrone, MD, FACMT, professor of emergency medicine and director, Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania
Opioid Stewardship 101: Medication-Assisted Treatment Program-Planning, Education, and Implementation (Part II) - Mar. 25, 2019
Speaker: Lewis Nelson, MD, professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and chief of service of the emergency department at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey