| Potential risk of medication discrepancies and reconciliation errors at admission and discharge from an inpatient medical service. | |
| | |
MedLine Citation:
|
PMID: 20923946 Owner: NLM Status: In-Process |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
|
BACKGROUND: Medication discrepancies, defined as unexplained variations among drug regimens at care transitions, are common. Some are unintended and cause reconciliation errors that are potentially detrimental for patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of medication discrepancies and reconciliation errors at admission and discharge in hospitalized patients and explore risk factors for reconciliation errors and their potential clinical impact. METHODS: An observational prospective study was conducted at a general teaching hospital. Patients who were admitted to the internal medicine service and were receiving chronic preadmission treatment were included in the study. Preadmission treatment was compared with the treatment prescribed on admission (first 48 hours) and at hospital discharge, and discrepancies and reconciliation errors were identified. The primary endpoint was the presence of reconciliation errors at admission and/or discharge. Potential risk factors (patient-, medication-, and system-related) for reconciliation errors were analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS: Of the 120 patients enrolled in the study between April and August 2009, 109 (90.8%) showed 513 discrepancies. The prevalence of patients with reconciliation errors was 20.8% (95% CI 13.6 to 28.1). Intended medication discrepancies were more frequent at admission (96.6%) than at discharge (75.5%), while reconciliation errors were more frequent at discharge (24.5%) than at admission (3.4%). The prevalence ratio (admission vs discharge) was 2.4 (95% CI 1.9 to 3.0) for discrepancies and 0.65 (95% CI 0.32 to 1.32) for reconciliation errors. The logistic regression analysis revealed an association between the number of discrepancies at admission (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.44) and age (OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.99 to 1.10) and an increased risk of reconciliation errors. CONCLUSIONS: Medication reconciliation strategies should focus primarily on avoiding errors at discharge. Since medication discrepancies at admission may predispose patients to reconciliation errors, early detection of such discrepancies would logically reduce the risk of reconciliation errors. Medication reconciliation programs must implement a process for gathering accurate preadmission drug histories and must submit this information to a critical assessment of patients' needs. |
| | |
Authors:
|
Mónica Climente-Martí; Elda R García-Mañón; Arturo Artero-Mora; N Víctor Jiménez-Torres |
Related Documents
:
|
15141846 - Preventing errors in healthcare: a call for action. 20594866 - Medical error and decision making: learning from the past and present in intensive care. 16926876 - Optical control of the advanced technology solar telescope. 14645756 - A pilot study in ophthalmology of inter-rater reliability in classifying diagnostic err... 10764936 - Objective auscultation for traditional chinese medical diagnosis using novel acoustic p... 1019096 - Anticoccidial action of monensin in turkey poults. |
Publication Detail:
|
Type: Journal Article Date: 2010-10-05 |
Journal Detail:
|
Title: The Annals of pharmacotherapy Volume: 44 ISSN: 1542-6270 ISO Abbreviation: Ann Pharmacother Publication Date: 2010 Nov |
Date Detail:
|
Created Date: 2010-11-04 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
|
Nlm Unique ID: 9203131 Medline TA: Ann Pharmacother Country: United States |
Other Details:
|
Languages: eng Pagination: 1747-54 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
|
Pharmacy Department, Hospital Universitario Doctor Peset, Valencia, Spain. climente_mon@gva.es |
Export Citation:
|
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
|
|
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Low-molecular-weight heparin overdose: management by observation.
Next Document: Treatment of civilian and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder with topiramate.