If you’ve ever tried to read a doctor’s handwriting, it comes as no shock that 1.5 million U.S. patients per year receive the wrong type, dose and/or time of medication.

In fact,  according to an Institute of Medicine study, there’s an average of one medication error per hospitalized patient per day and an estimated 7,000 medication-errror related deaths each year. 

Even non-fatal drug errors in an outpatient or hospital setting can add as much as $5,800 to the bill. Who foots a big chunk of the estimated $3.5 billion in preventable costs: employers and patients.

While bad handwriting may be the most basic cause of these problems – only six percent of hospital prescriptions are written electronically and only three percent of hospitals maintain electronic patient records – the sheer volume and complexity of today’s medications compound the problem.

In the long term, hospitals hope to reduce the problem through the uniform use of electronic devices that check the medication against information contained on a patient’s I.D. bracelet. While the use of such systems has become more common since the mid-1990s, it’s still far from universal.

But technology is only part of the solution, anyway. Employee education, knowledge and activism in their own care is the still the frontline defense against medication errors. Remember: It’s not just hospitalized employees who are at risk:

• Four out of five American adults take at least one daily medication or dietary supplement and about 33% take five meds or more each day. Herbal remedies count, too, and can interact with other medications in unintended ways.
• Not even the savviest medical pros can track every possible med. Today, there more than 10,000 distinct prescription drugs and 300,000 over-the-counter meds on the market
• Usage and dosage instructions vary with each person’s age, medical history, weight, allergies and other risk factors.
• Numerous drugs intended for different purposes have similar-sounding names, spellings or come in similar-looking containers. Here’s a list of some of the most commonly confused medications in the U.S.

What can employers and workers do? Employers often make a point of teaching employees about generic drugs and encouraging them to ask their doctors if a generic is available. That’s fine, but relatively few companies take the even more important (and potentially cost-saving and even life-saving) step of teaching employees about the need for taking an active role in their own prescription and over-the-counter medication safety.

Experts say that by taking three relatively simple steps, an employee can cut his or her risk (and their dependents’ risks) by as much as 75%:

1. Keep a current list of the medications and supplements taken
2. Take the list along when going to the doctor and share the information any time a prescription is written
3. Ask questions about the prescription, find out what written prescriptions say and then check it for accuracy after it is filled by the pharmacy.

A large percentage of employees remain reluctant to take an active role in their own health care, and many do little or no research on the meds they take. Unfortunately, the expression “to err is human” very much applies to the prescription and dispensing of drugs — and both patients and health plan sponsors alike serve an important role in helping to cut the inherent risk.