Discharge drug lists are inaccurate, study says
Discharge medication lists often contain inaccuracies, according to recent research published in Quality and Safety in Health
Care (2007;16:34–9).
Researchers interviewed 200 patients within a week of their discharge
from surgical or medical wards at a university hospital in Denmark.
They found that 66 of the 80 patients (55 surgical and 11 medical)
who had no drugs mentioned in their discharge letter were actually
taking medicines at home
Where medicines were included in the discharge lists, there were
several discrepancies between the regimen prescribed in hospital
and that which was being taken at home (affecting 34 patients) — 11
drugs included in discharge lists were not being used by patients
at home, 12 drugs that had been discontinued during a patient’s
hospital stay were still being used by him or her and 40 drugs
were being used in doses or regimens other than those indicated
in the discharge list or hospital file. Most discrepancies were
likely only to have minor clinical implications, the researchers
say, but nine of the 12 medicines that patients were still taking
despite them being “discontinued” could have potentially
harmful consequences due to use of unnecessary and unmonitored
treatment.
The authors suggest that it is important to improve communication
between primary and secondary care in order to prevent inappropriate
use of medicines and adverse drug errors.
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Hospital
Pharmacist