Avoidable Patient Harm and Resulting Liability
What would it take to improve our insight into the cost of avoidable patient harm?
Medications are the most frequent cause of adverse events in clinical settings.
Some of the most devastating drug-related injuries include Steven-Johnson Syndrome, drug-related liver injury or bone marrow failure. These events, however rare, are among those that are very expensive to treat and often leave long-lasting damage.
The substantial consequences of adverse drug events are hospital admissions and readmissions, prolonged hospital stay, additional therapeutic interventions and increased demand on staff. For the patient, in addition to all the misery and pain they suffer, adverse drug events mean time away from work, loss of income and additional medical expenses.
3. AVOIDABLE PATIENT HARM
VERONIKA VALDOVA
VERACUITY, LLC
Reduced visibility of Adverse Drug Events
(ADEs) makes it difficult for physicians to
adjust their prescribing practices, which
extends occurrence of preventable error-
related injuries, with associated liability risk.
4. Boeing RB-29A Superfortress 44-61999 “Over Exposed!”
Crashed 03 Nov 1948 at Bleaklow, High Peak, Derbyshire, UK
5. 5
In 2000, Samantha Reckis (age 7) developed
Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis after taking
Children’s Motrin. In 2013, she was awarded
$140 million in settlement. In 2016, The U.S.
Supreme Court said that it will not hear
Johnson & Johnson’s appeal and the verdict
remained intact. (The National Trial Lawyers)
“More calls in the U.S. to poison control
centers are related to acetaminophen than
any other drug. These account for more than
100,000 calls, with 56,000 emergency room
visits, 2,600 hospitalizations, and 458
deaths. Over 40% of the cases of acute liver
failure in the United States are from
acetaminophen.” (Levin Law)
Jasmin Bindom reached settlement against
McNeil, the maker of Tylenol.
Pliva v Mensing
VERONIKA VALDOVA
Steven-Johnson Syndrome Bone marrow failure
Drug-related liver injury
Drug-related patient injury
6. TO ERR IS HUMAN
PREVENTABLE ADVERSE DRUG EVENTS
To Err is Human
380,000 to 450,000 preventable ADEs annually (IoM, 2007)
In 1996, incremental cost of an ADE was $5857 (Bates, 1997)
400,000 ADEs
x
incremental cost $5857 per ADE
Estimated cost of preventable ADEs was
$3.5 billion a year
Institute of Medicine. 2000. To Err Is Human:
Building a Safer Health System. Washington,
DC: The National Academies Press.
7. BECKER’S HOSPITAL REVIEW
COST OF ADVERSE DRUG EVENTS
Becker’s Hospital Review 2015
$4.7 billion in reported costs of ADRs
$25 billion in true costs if unreported
ADRs are considered
Becker’s Hospital Review. May 5, 2015. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-
management-administration/a-new-era-of-drug-safety-using-adverse-events-big-data-to-improve-
outcomes-and-decrease-healthcare-costs.html
8. U.S. HEALTH CARE SPENDING
NON-OPTIMIZED RX DRUG THERAPY
The Cost of Non-Optimized Therapy 2018
Total U.S. health care spending reached $3.5 trillion
• of which hospital care was $1.1 trillion
• physician and clinical services were $694 billion
• retail prescription drugs cost $333.4 billion.
The cost of non-optimized prescription drug therapy,
i.e. treatment failure and a new medical problem is
estimated at $528 billion (Watanabe, 2018)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. National Health Expenditures 2017 Highlights. CMS 2018;
Watanabe JH, McInnis T, Hirsch JD. Cost of prescription drug-related morbidity and mortality. Ann Pharmacother
2018;1060028018765159
9. Veronika Valdova
Batel Marques F, Penedones A, Mendes D, Alves C. A systematic review of observational studies evaluating costs of
adverse drug reactions. Clinicoecon Outcomes Res. 2016;8:413-26. Published 2016 Aug 24. doi:10.2147/CEOR.S115689
• 31 Observational studies published from 1995 to 2015 included
• All included studies had a low risk of bias (comparable to a well-performed randomized trial)
• Validated methods to measure ADE-associated costs needed
• Large methodological heterogeneity in measuring ADE-related morbidity and associated costs
• Highest estimated cost €40,273.08 involved pediatric population in intensive care unit
• Evidence suggests increased frequency and severity of ADRs
• Profound lack of knowledge in outpatient setting
• Costs due to ADEs may be steadily rising
10. Veronika Valdova
• Evaluation of the economic impact of preventable ADRs in the USA and Europe
• The associated healthcare costs include new hospital admissions, prolonged length of inpatient stay and additional
therapeutic interventions
• Research on economic impact of ADRs very limited and methodologically heterogenous
• The costs due to preventable ADRs:
• €2,851 to €9,015 (inpatient setting)
• €174 to €8,515 (outpatient setting)
• Impact of preventable ADRs on length of stay was 9.2 days (outpatient) / 6.1 days (inpatient)
There are no published studies that would focus on the cost of preventable ADRs
D Formica, J Sultana, PM Cutroneo, S Lucchesi, R Angelica, S Crisafulli, Y Ingrasciotta, F Salvo, E Spina & G Trifirò (2018) The economic burden of preventable
adverse drug reactions: a systematic review of observational studies, Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, 17:7, 681-695, DOI: 10.1080/14740338.2018.1491547
11. First ever black hole image released, 2019
Research that quantifies the cost of patient harm
due to adverse drug events
12. Patient Harm & Resulting Liability
Legal concepts
LAWSUITS AGAINST HEALTHCARE
PROFESSIONALS
•Diagnostic errors
•Errors of omission
•Errors of commission
•Errors of communication
•Errors of context
LAWSUITS AGAINST THE PHARMACEUTICAL
& MEDICAL DEVICES INDUSTRY
•Inadequate warning on the label
•Defectively manufactured product
•Defectively designed product (devices)
13. Wyeth v. Levine
Wyeth v. Levine (2009), is a United
States Supreme Court case holding
that Federal regulatory approval of
a medication does not shield the
manufacturer from liability under
state law.
14. How do I know there is
a problem with IV push
vs. IV drip?
route of administration
stated , 424,013, 41%
unknown ,
340,023, 32%
blank ,
284,539,
27%
Percentage of products with Route of
administration stated (FAERS Q1 2019)
route of administration stated unknown blank
15. Patient Harm & Resulting Liability
Legal concepts
LAWSUITS AGAINST HEALTHCARE
PROFESSIONALS
•Diagnostic errors
•Errors of omission
•Errors of commission
•Errors of communication
•Errors of context
LAWSUITS AGAINST THE PHARMACEUTICAL
& MEDICAL DEVICES INDUSTRY
•Inadequate warning on the label
•Defectively manufactured product
•Defectively designed product (devices)
16. Criminal & Civil
liability
GSK pleaded guilty to manufacture
and distribution of certain
adulterated drugs made at GSK’s
manufacturing facility at Cidra,
Puerto Rico. The affected drugs
were Kytril, Bactroban, Paxil CR and
Avandamet.
DOJ (2010): GlaxoSmithKline to Plead Guilty & Pay $750 Million to Resolve Criminal and Civil Liability Regarding
Manufacturing Deficiencies at Puerto Rico Plant
17.
18.
19.
20. How do I know there
is a problem with a
specific product when
very few products are
unambiguously
identified?
NDC value stated
(non-10-digit
format),
331,525, 32%
NDC value stated
(10-digit
format), 9, 0%
NDC value blank
, 717,041, 68%
Count and Percentage of products that include NDC #
(FAERS Q1 2019)
NDC value stated (non-10-digit format)
NDC value stated (10-digit format)
NDC value blank
21. Patient Harm & Resulting Liability
Legal concepts
LAWSUITS AGAINST HEALTHCARE
PROFESSIONALS
•Diagnostic errors
•Errors of omission
•Errors of commission
•Errors of communication
•Errors of context
LAWSUITS AGAINST THE PHARMACEUTICAL
& MEDICAL DEVICES INDUSTRY
•Inadequate warning on the label
•Defectively manufactured product
•Defectively designed product (devices)
22. Guvenoz v. Target
Corp, Inc.
Generic version of DARVOCET
(Dextropropoxyphene) caused cardiac
arrest, brain injury and death and was
pulled from the market.
23. Is Compliance with Submission
Timelines Enough?
Limitations of FAERS Data
Data Quality (duplicated reports, insufficient information)
Causality assessment (temporal relationship, dechallenge,
rechallenge, biological plausibility, alternative explanations)
Verification of information
Rates of occurrence
24. Patient Harm & Resulting Liability
Legal concepts
LAWSUITS AGAINST HEALTHCARE
PROFESSIONALS
•Diagnostic errors
•Errors of omission
•Errors of commission
•Errors of communication
•Errors of context
LAWSUITS AGAINST THE PHARMACEUTICAL
& MEDICAL DEVICES INDUSTRY
•Inadequate warning on the label
•Defectively manufactured product
•Defectively designed product (devices)
28. Pharmacogenomic
considerations
PAROXETINE
• The highest inhibitory constant for the CYP450
2D6 isoenzyme of all antidepressants
• Potent inhibitor of 3A4 with multiple 3A4
substrate interactions
• The highest known affinity for the serotonin
transporter of any currently used antidepressant.
30. What would it take to improve
our insight into the cost of
avoidable patient harm?
• Data quality
• Attention to information requirements
• Modern data collection methods
• Novel biomarkers
• Epidemiological indicators
• Data verification
• Communication
• Analytical outputs