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ensure accuracy. States, the authors estimate the national costs
of adverse events to be $37.6 billion and of preventable adverse
events to be $17 billion. The total national costs associated
with adverse events was approximately 4 percent of national
health expenditures in 1996. In 1992, the direct and indirect
costs of adverse events were slightly higher than the direct and
indirect costs of caring for people with HIV and AIDS. It has
been estimated that for every dollar spent on ambulatory
medications, another dollar is spent to treat new health
problems caused by the medication.97 Studies of the direct costs
of medication-related errors fall into three categories; (1)
population-based studies of patients in a community or health
plan; (2) studies of medication-related errors that occur in
hospitals; and (3) studies of medicat