18.4 Average number of prescriptions filled by each Medicare enrollee in 1992 (including refills)
29.7 Average number of prescriptions filled by each Medicare enrollee in 2000 (including refills)
67 Percentage of nursing-home residents with adverse drug events over a four-year period
15 Percentage of those events that resulted in hospitalization
28 Percentage of elderly patients who, in one year-long study, filled prescriptions for a potentially problematic psychotropic drug
5 Percent chance that, in 2000–2001, an elderly HMO patient received a drug categorized by the widely used Beers criteria as "always avoid" because of general inefficacy or high risk of toxicity
1.9 Millions of adverse drug events (estimated), including allergic reactions and unintentional overdoses, in Medicare enrollees in 2003
180,000 Number that were life-threatening or fatal
475,000-plus Number that, with better prescribing and monitoring, might have been prevented 
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