Medication errors when transferring elderly patients between primary health care and hospital care
Midlöv, Patrik LU
; Bergkvist, Anna
LU
; Bondesson, Åsa ÅB
LU
; Eriksson, Tommy
LU
and Höglund, Peter
LU
(2005)
In PHARMACY WORLD & SCIENCE
27(2).
p.116-120
- Abstract
- Objective: The aims were to evaluate the frequency and nature of errors in medication when patients are transferred between primary and secondary care. Method: Elderly primary health care patients (> 65 years) living in nursing homes or in their own homes with care provided by the community nursing system, had been admitted to one of two hospitals in southern Sweden, one university hospital and one local hospital. A total of 69 patient-transfers were included. Of these, 34 patients were admitted to hospital whereas 35 were discharged from hospital. Main outcome measure: Percentage medication errors of all medications i.e. any error in the process of prescribing, dispensing, or administering a drug, and whether these had adverse... (More)
- Objective: The aims were to evaluate the frequency and nature of errors in medication when patients are transferred between primary and secondary care. Method: Elderly primary health care patients (> 65 years) living in nursing homes or in their own homes with care provided by the community nursing system, had been admitted to one of two hospitals in southern Sweden, one university hospital and one local hospital. A total of 69 patient-transfers were included. Of these, 34 patients were admitted to hospital whereas 35 were discharged from hospital. Main outcome measure: Percentage medication errors of all medications i.e. any error in the process of prescribing, dispensing, or administering a drug, and whether these had adverse consequences or not. Results: There were 142 medication errors out of 758 transfers of medications. The patients in this study used on an average more than 10 drugs before, during and after hospital stay. On an average, there were two medication errors each time a patient was transferred between primary and secondary care. When patients were discharged from the hospital, the usage of a specific medication dispensing system constituted a significant risk for medication errors. The most common error when patients were transferred to the hospital was inadvertent withdrawal of drugs. When patients left the hospital the most common error was that drugs were erroneously added. Conclusion: Medication errors are common when elderly patients are transferred between primary and secondary care. Improvement in documentation and transferring data about elderly patients' medications could reduce these errors. The specific medication dispensing system that has been used in order to increase safety in medication dispensing does not seem to be a good instrument to reduce the number of errors in transferring data about medication. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/239963
- author
- Midlöv, Patrik
LU
; Bergkvist, Anna
LU
; Bondesson, Åsa ÅB
LU
; Eriksson, Tommy
LU
and Höglund, Peter
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- drug use, drug related problems, elderly, integrated care, errors, medication, pharmaceutical care, Sweden
- in
- PHARMACY WORLD & SCIENCE
- volume
- 27
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 116 - 120
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000229273000011
- pmid:15999922
- scopus:19944370476
- ISSN
- 0928-1231
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11096-004-3705-y
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8a9e2afa-ae80-421f-905a-e2d54c0f006f (old id 239963)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:13:01
- date last changed
- 2024-02-09 19:14:51
@article{8a9e2afa-ae80-421f-905a-e2d54c0f006f,
abstract = {{Objective: The aims were to evaluate the frequency and nature of errors in medication when patients are transferred between primary and secondary care. Method: Elderly primary health care patients (> 65 years) living in nursing homes or in their own homes with care provided by the community nursing system, had been admitted to one of two hospitals in southern Sweden, one university hospital and one local hospital. A total of 69 patient-transfers were included. Of these, 34 patients were admitted to hospital whereas 35 were discharged from hospital. Main outcome measure: Percentage medication errors of all medications i.e. any error in the process of prescribing, dispensing, or administering a drug, and whether these had adverse consequences or not. Results: There were 142 medication errors out of 758 transfers of medications. The patients in this study used on an average more than 10 drugs before, during and after hospital stay. On an average, there were two medication errors each time a patient was transferred between primary and secondary care. When patients were discharged from the hospital, the usage of a specific medication dispensing system constituted a significant risk for medication errors. The most common error when patients were transferred to the hospital was inadvertent withdrawal of drugs. When patients left the hospital the most common error was that drugs were erroneously added. Conclusion: Medication errors are common when elderly patients are transferred between primary and secondary care. Improvement in documentation and transferring data about elderly patients' medications could reduce these errors. The specific medication dispensing system that has been used in order to increase safety in medication dispensing does not seem to be a good instrument to reduce the number of errors in transferring data about medication.}},
author = {{Midlöv, Patrik and Bergkvist, Anna and Bondesson, Åsa ÅB and Eriksson, Tommy and Höglund, Peter}},
issn = {{0928-1231}},
keywords = {{drug use; drug related problems; elderly; integrated care; errors; medication; pharmaceutical care; Sweden}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{116--120}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{PHARMACY WORLD & SCIENCE}},
title = {{Medication errors when transferring elderly patients between primary health care and hospital care}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11096-004-3705-y}},
doi = {{10.1007/s11096-004-3705-y}},
volume = {{27}},
year = {{2005}},
}