Errors Found in Blood Thinner Dosages
From Times Wire Reports
Some heart patients are given too large a dose of blood thinner at the hospital, which can lead to excessive bleeding, researchers said in Chicago.
The dosing errors found in 42% of more than 30,000 cases stemmed from factors including physicians using a “one size fits all” dosing criteria, a lack of information about a patient’s weight or other indicators.
The dosing errors most often affected patients more vulnerable to bleeding, such as the elderly, women, low-weight patients, diabetics or patients with diminished renal function, the researchers said in the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
