An evaluative study of unclaimed prescriptions.

Effects of implementation of an integrated hospital computer system have greatly increased the outpatient prescription non-compliance rate. The provider's electronic order entry initiates the prescription process resulting in receipt of the prescription order in the pharmacy without the intervention of the patient. A demographic study by clinic of origin and type of medications contributing to the increase in compliance failure is presented. Within a defined range of dates, the number of unclaimed prescriptions for each clinic is reported per total of unclaimed prescriptions for that period. Then, the number of unclaimed prescriptions per clinic is evaluated in light of the total number of prescriptions generated by that clinic. Finally, types of medications in the unclaimed prescriptions are broken down into American Hospital Formulary Service drug categories for data on the most commonly unclaimed type of medications. Conclusions are made on the correlation between compliance failure, clinic type and drug category.