Non-health Care Facility Medication Errors Associated with Hormones and Hormone Antagonists in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Hormones and hormone antagonists are frequently associated with medication errors and may result in important adverse outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate non-health care facility (non-HCF) medication errors associated with hormones and hormone antagonists in the United States (US).

METHODS: A retrospective analysis of National Poison Data System data was conducted to identify characteristics and trends of unintentional non-HCF therapeutic errors involving hormones and hormone antagonists among individuals of all ages from 2000 to 2012.

RESULTS: From 2000 to 2012, US poison control centers received 169,695 calls regarding unintentional non-HCF therapeutic errors associated with hormone therapies, averaging 13,053 medication error calls annually. The rate of reported errors increased significantly by 162.6% (p < 0.001), from 2.24 per 100,000 US residents in 2000 to 5.89 per 100,000 in 2012. Two thirds of the errors (65.2%) occurred among females. The medications most commonly associated with errors were thyroid preparations (23.2%), corticosteroids (21.9%), and insulin (20.0%). All nine deaths and 93.2% of major effects were attributed to hypoglycemic agents. Sulfonylureas alone accounted 43.9% of major effects. The number and rate of therapeutic errors increased significantly for all medication categories except estrogen and thiazolidinediones. Most errors were managed at the site of exposure (82.9%) and did not result in serious medical outcomes (95.6%).

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides an overview of non-HCF medication errors associated with hormones and hormone antagonists in the US. While most errors did not result in adverse outcomes, their increasing frequency places a greater burden on the health care system.