February 14, 2008 Report: Patients not always given correct medications at hospitals Play video

(NECN: Boston, Mass.) - When you go to the hospital you expect to be given the correct medicine, but that doesn't always happen. A new study finds an alarmingly high rate of prescription errors at six Massachusetts community hospitals.

The study found that one in 10 patients suffered serious and avoidable medication errors.

The researchers urged all hospitals in the state to install a computerized prescription ordering system. They declined to name the six hospitals, which took part in the study on condition of anonymity. There are 73 hospitals in the state.

The study's author, Dr. David Bates of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says the computerized system made a big difference when it was put in place at his hospital in 1995. He says preventable medication errors declined by 55 percent over the next two years.

NECN's Latoyia Edwards has the details.