Hospitalizations for patients with newly diagnosed renal disease were reviewed for the period 1972 to 1983 at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound to identify those instances where the renal disease might have been caused by a drug(s). After careful review of 496 admissions, only nine instances were found in which a drug etiology of the renal disease could not be safely ruled out on a case history basis. From this study, it is estimated that the frequency of newly diagnosed, outpatient drug-induced renal disease requiring hospitalization is rare, on the order of one per 300,000 persons per year.