Senators Call for Task Force to Address Hospitalizations Due to ADEs

January 11, 2012 8:12 PM

United States Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have called for HHS to convene a task force to develop strategies for reducing unnecessary hospitalizations related to adverse drug events (ADEs). In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the senators cited a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found two-thirds of hospitalizations due to ADEs were related to four common medications: warfarin, insulin, oral anti-platelet agents, and oral hypoglycemic agents. The letter stressed that “many of these hospitalizations are entirely preventable through improved patient education and care management.” The senators requested that a joint task force, composed of federal agencies such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control, FDA, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, examine this issue, and outlined several areas they hoped the task force would address, including:

• Developing easier-to-understand patient medication guides;
• Providing transitions of care that could help coordinate patient medication; and
• Implementing coordination of electronic health records for Medicare beneficiaries that fall under this high-risk category.

The recommendation also called for the task force to consider use of e-prescribing to assist with coordinating patient care; the development of other preventative measures; and changes related to Medicare.
The study, “Emergency Hospitalizations for Adverse Drug Events in Older Americans” is available on The New England Journal of Medicine Web site.