Prevent medication errors on admission

Emerald - 2003
KarenDutton1, NeilHedger2, SimonWills3, PaulineDavies4
1Karen Dutton is a Pharmacy Discharge Facilitator at Derriford Hospital NHS Trust, Plymouth, UK.
2Neil Hedger is Consultant Physician and Clinical Director, at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK.
3Simon Wills is Head of Wessex Medicines Information Centre, Southampton, UK.
4Pauline Davies is a retired Medical Services Pharmacist, formerly with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK.

Tóm tắt

The aim of this study is to quantify prescribing errors relating to pre‐admission medication in patients admitted to hospital. It also assesses the impact of a hospital pharmacist in identifying and correcting these errors. Standard prescription monitoring by the pharmacist took place on admission in phase 1 (526 patients). This was compared with an extension of the pharmacist’s role in phase 2 (506 patients) by taking a detailed medication history, including assessment of patients’ own drugs (PODs). A significant increase (p < 0.001) in errors detected and corrected was identified. In phase 2, 45.1 per cent of prescription charts contained one or more errors. Of these errors, 74.8 per cent could not be identified from checking the drug chart alone. As this is the principal method by which many hospital pharmacists check patients’ medication charts this is an area of concern. More than 50 per cent of errors were considered likely to cause destabilisation of a chronic medical condition, or serious adverse events. It has been shown that an effective way to prevent these errors and ensure the continuity of medication between primary and secondary care is for pharmacists to take a detailed drug history on admission.

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