The Rate and Costs Attributable to Intravenous Patient-Controlled Analgesia Errors

Purpose To estimate the rates and costs of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV PCA) errors from the hospital or integrated health system perspective. Methods This study used a cost-accounting methodology to estimate the costs attributable to IV PCA errors in the United States. Data for the study were obtained from the MEDMARX and Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) datasets, published literature, and expert opinions. MEDMARX is a voluntary, anonymous, medication-error-reporting database owned and operated by the United States Pharmacopeia. MAUDE is a mandatory, device-error-reporting database maintained by the US Food and Drug Administration. Levels of care rendered as a result of the IV PCA errors were estimated by applying clinical assumptions (validated by an expert advisory panel) to each of the 7 error consequences considered in this analysis. Variable and opportunity costs (2006 values) were considered, including medication, laboratory, lost revenue, and labor. The corresponding costs were applied to the error consequences to derive the estimated mean cost for each error cause. The numbers of errors documented in each dataset and the published literature were used to extrapolate the rate of IV PCA errors annually. Results The average cost per error event was $733 in the MEDMARX dataset and $552 in the MAUDE dataset. Harmful IV PCA errors were 120 to 250 times more costly than nonharmful errors. The annual error rates were estimated as 407 IV PCA-related errors and 17 device-related errors per 10,000 people within the United States. Conclusion: Analysis of 2 datasets, MEDMARX and MAUDE, revealed that IV PCA medication- and device-related errors are costly to hospitals and integrated health systems and represent a significant burden on the US health system. This study provided a novel approach to estimating the associated costs of undesired IV PCA-related events. Additional research is needed to validate the methodology (as applied to this area) and results.