The role of pharmacotherapeutical audit in the improvement of pharmacotherapy during inpatient rehabilitation care. Experience for the National Institute of Medical Rehabilitation, Hungary

Abstract

Pharmacotherapy is one of the most important and dangerous area in hospital health care, that explains why innumerable efforts are made worldwide to improve this process and prevent mistakes. Although clinical audit is a well known and widely used method, it is very rarely used for this purpose and scientific papers dealing with this topic can be scarcely found. In the last 20 years different quality management systems were introduced into the Hungarian hospitals, but most of them are not specific for the medical care. The most important element of quality management systems is the internal, professional audit that serves patient safety. Authors report their experience on pharmacotherapy audits performed for over a decade at the National Institute of Medical Rehabilitation, Hungary. They review the method of audit meetings in details and discuss the most frequent problems. The results indicate that characteristics of therapeutic mistakes in the rehabilitation practice are similar to those reported in scientific literature. Improving knowledge on pharmacotherapy audits of rehabilitation specialists may be an important part of continuous professional advancement providing facility for dispute on other issues of patient care.