Hospital overdoses common

Los Angeles -- An overdose of medication given to the newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid in Los Angeles is part of a much bigger problem in U.S. hospitals.

An official at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has apologized for an error that led to several patients receiving overdoses of an anti-coagulant. The newborn twins of Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, were listed in stable condition after they were mistakenly given massive doses of the anti-coagulant last weekend.

The hospital didn't mention Quaid's children specifically, but it apologized in a prepared statement for a "preventable error," People.com reported.

At least 1.5 million Americans are injured in a typical year after receiving the wrong medication or the incorrect dose.

Citing the Institute of Medicine -- which is part of the National Academies of Science -- the newspaper said the number of medication errors has more than doubled in the last decade.

Errors typically occur when pharmacists improperly stock drugs, when nurses fail to be sure they are administering the proper medication or when doctors' handwriting is misread, among other reasons, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.