Frequency Of Medication Discrepancies Research Articles

Evaluating the effects of medication reconciliation by pharmacists on patient safety in hospitalized patients

Backgrounds: Medication errors are one of the most common errors that are associated with adverse effects on patients and may even lead to mortality. One of the methods for determining patient safety in hospitals is assessing the prevalence of medication errors. In this regard, medication reconciliation is used to improve drug safety in the treatment process. The present study was conducted on 7564 patients in the emergency department of one of the hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Methods: In total, 256 adult patients with a mean of 45 years, who had been admitted to the emergency department of a hospital in the past six months and had used at least three drugs before admission, were entered into the study. In this study, the effect of medication reconciliation on admitted patients was assessed to prevent drug errors at the time of admission by pharmacists. The main outcome measure was Type and Frequency Percentage of Drug Differences Observed during Medication Reconciliation were measured. Results: According to the results, the presence of a trained pharmacist was significantly effective in medication reconciliation for enhancing patient safety and treatment process accuracy. In addition, it was concluded that age, the condition of hospitalization, and medical center personnel had a direct relationship with the frequency of medication discrepancies. Conclusion: The presence of a trained pharmacist to perform the medication reconciliation process significantly affected the improvement of patient safety and the accuracy of the treatment process.

Clinical Pharmacist-Led Medication Reconciliation Initiative at a Newly Established Hospital in Qatar: A Preliminary Report

This preliminary study was conducted to identify the types and frequency of medication discrepancies, and clinical pharmacists' interventions made upon patients' admission. Medication Reconciliation (MR) was done by clinical pharmacists routinely on inpatients from intensive care unit, medical and surgical wards at Al Wakra hospital. This retrospective study was conducted on 251 MR forms used by the clinical pharmacists.

Medication discrepancies in late-stage chronic kidney disease.

BackgroundLate-stage chronic kidney disease (LS-CKD) can be defined by glomerular filtration rate (GFR) 0–30 mL/min. It is a period of risk for medication discrepancies because of frequent hospitalizations, fragmented medical care, inadequate communication and polypharmacy. In this study, we sought to characterize medication discrepancies in LS-CKD.MethodsWe analyzed all patients enrolled in Northwell Health’s Healthy Transitions in LS-CKD program. All patients had estimated GFR 0–30 mL/min, not on dialysis. Medications were reviewed by a nurse at a home visit. Patients’ medication usage and practice were compared with nephrologists’ medication lists, and discrepancies were characterized. Patients were categorized as having either no discrepancies or one or more. Associations between patient characteristics and number of medication discrepancies were evaluated by chi-square or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables, and two-sample t-test or Wilcoxon text for continuous variables.ResultsSeven hundred and thirteen patients with a median age of 70 (interquartile range 58–79) years were studied. There were 392 patients (55.0% of the study population) with at least one medication discrepancy. The therapeutic classes of medications with most frequently occurring medication discrepancies were cardiovascular, vitamins, bone and mineral disease agents, diuretics, analgesics and diabetes medications. In multivariable analysis, factors associated with higher risk of discrepancies were congestive heart failure [odds ratio (OR) 2.13; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.44–3.16; P = 0.0002] and number of medications (OR 1.29; 95% CI 1.21–1.37; P < 0.0001).ConclusionsMedication discrepancies are common in LS-CKD, affect the majority of patients and include high-risk medication classes. Congestive heart failure and total number of medications are independently associated with greater risk for multiple drug discrepancies. The frequency of medication discrepancies indicates a need for great care in medication management of these patients.

Technicians can reduce the frequency of medication discrepancies, study finds

Technicians can reduce the frequency of medication discrepancies, study finds