Medication error rate in transition of care: General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional emergency department

Sarah J. Prior; Colleen Cheek; Dong Cheah; Christopher Etherington; Abigail Williams; Nicole S. Reeves

doi:10.3390/healthcare7040152

Medication error rate in transition of care: General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional emergency department

Sarah J. Prior, Colleen Cheek^*, Dong Cheah, Christopher Etherington, Abigail Williams, Nicole S. Reeves

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Medication errors have a significant impact on patient outcomes, increase healthcare costs, and are a common cause of preventable morbidity. This single-site, observational, diagnostic accuracy study aimed to quantify medication discrepancies in transition of care from primary care to the emergency department (ED) over a 12-month period. Medication lists in General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional ED were examined against a Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) performed by a hospital pharmacist. One hundred and forty-three patients (25%) with computer-generated GP referrals to ED who were subsequently admitted to hospital had a BPMH taken; 135 (94%) of these had at least one medication discrepancy identified with a discrepancy rate of 67.18 discrepancies per 100 medications. Improving medication reconciliation in the community may reduce the burden associated with preventable medication errors. Whether this is achieved by more frequent GP-led medication review or community-based pharmacist medication review may depend on the community and available resources.

Original language	English
Article number	152
Pages (from-to)	1-6
Number of pages	6
Journal	Healthcare (Switzerland)
Volume	7
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7040152
Publication status	Published - 28 Nov 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2019. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

medication
general practice
discrepancy
pharmacist
risk
referral
best practice medication history

Access to Document

10.3390/healthcare7040152Licence: CC BY

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 506 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{94edb0efd0b84d09a0277b16e0575584,

title = "Medication error rate in transition of care: General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional emergency department",

abstract = "Medication errors have a significant impact on patient outcomes, increase healthcare costs, and are a common cause of preventable morbidity. This single-site, observational, diagnostic accuracy study aimed to quantify medication discrepancies in transition of care from primary care to the emergency department (ED) over a 12-month period. Medication lists in General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional ED were examined against a Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) performed by a hospital pharmacist. One hundred and forty-three patients (25%) with computer-generated GP referrals to ED who were subsequently admitted to hospital had a BPMH taken; 135 (94%) of these had at least one medication discrepancy identified with a discrepancy rate of 67.18 discrepancies per 100 medications. Improving medication reconciliation in the community may reduce the burden associated with preventable medication errors. Whether this is achieved by more frequent GP-led medication review or community-based pharmacist medication review may depend on the community and available resources.",

keywords = "medication, general practice, discrepancy, pharmacist, risk, referral, best practice medication history",

author = "Prior, {Sarah J.} and Colleen Cheek and Dong Cheah and Christopher Etherington and Abigail Williams and Reeves, {Nicole S.}",

note = "Copyright the Author(s) 2019. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.",

year = "2019",

month = nov,

day = "28",

doi = "10.3390/healthcare7040152",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

pages = "1--6",

journal = "Healthcare (Switzerland)",

issn = "2227-9032",

publisher = "MDPI AG",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Medication error rate in transition of care

T2 - General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional emergency department

AU - Prior, Sarah J.

AU - Cheek, Colleen

AU - Cheah, Dong

AU - Etherington, Christopher

AU - Williams, Abigail

AU - Reeves, Nicole S.

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2019. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2019/11/28

Y1 - 2019/11/28

N2 - Medication errors have a significant impact on patient outcomes, increase healthcare costs, and are a common cause of preventable morbidity. This single-site, observational, diagnostic accuracy study aimed to quantify medication discrepancies in transition of care from primary care to the emergency department (ED) over a 12-month period. Medication lists in General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional ED were examined against a Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) performed by a hospital pharmacist. One hundred and forty-three patients (25%) with computer-generated GP referrals to ED who were subsequently admitted to hospital had a BPMH taken; 135 (94%) of these had at least one medication discrepancy identified with a discrepancy rate of 67.18 discrepancies per 100 medications. Improving medication reconciliation in the community may reduce the burden associated with preventable medication errors. Whether this is achieved by more frequent GP-led medication review or community-based pharmacist medication review may depend on the community and available resources.

AB - Medication errors have a significant impact on patient outcomes, increase healthcare costs, and are a common cause of preventable morbidity. This single-site, observational, diagnostic accuracy study aimed to quantify medication discrepancies in transition of care from primary care to the emergency department (ED) over a 12-month period. Medication lists in General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional ED were examined against a Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) performed by a hospital pharmacist. One hundred and forty-three patients (25%) with computer-generated GP referrals to ED who were subsequently admitted to hospital had a BPMH taken; 135 (94%) of these had at least one medication discrepancy identified with a discrepancy rate of 67.18 discrepancies per 100 medications. Improving medication reconciliation in the community may reduce the burden associated with preventable medication errors. Whether this is achieved by more frequent GP-led medication review or community-based pharmacist medication review may depend on the community and available resources.

KW - medication

KW - general practice

KW - discrepancy

KW - pharmacist

KW - risk

KW - referral

KW - best practice medication history

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115105750&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/healthcare7040152

DO - 10.3390/healthcare7040152

M3 - Article

C2 - 31795186

SN - 2227-9032

VL - 7

SP - 1

EP - 6

JO - Healthcare (Switzerland)

JF - Healthcare (Switzerland)

IS - 4

M1 - 152

ER -

Medication error rate in transition of care: General Practitioner (GP) referrals to a regional emergency department

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this