Rutger Stuffken1, Toine C G Egberts. 1. General Hospital Hilversum, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, 1201 DA Hilversum, The Netherlands. rstuffken@zhh.nl
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the nature and frequency of changes in drug treatment upon discharge from hospital. METHOD: All drugs of discharged patients, dispensed by an outpatient pharmacy were compared with the latest clinical medication and discontinuities were classified. RESULTS: Of all prescriptions dispensed by the outpatient pharmacy, 40% had some discontinuity; most frequent were product substitution (27%) and new prescriptions, starting at the moment of discharge (11%). CONCLUSION: There is a gap in the conformity between drugs used in the hospital and the drugs dispensed by the outpatient pharmacy at the moment of discharge.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the nature and frequency of changes in drug treatment upon discharge from hospital. METHOD: All drugs of discharged patients, dispensed by an outpatient pharmacy were compared with the latest clinical medication and discontinuities were classified. RESULTS: Of all prescriptions dispensed by the outpatient pharmacy, 40% had some discontinuity; most frequent were product substitution (27%) and new prescriptions, starting at the moment of discharge (11%). CONCLUSION: There is a gap in the conformity between drugs used in the hospital and the drugs dispensed by the outpatient pharmacy at the moment of discharge.
Authors: R Fijn; P M L A Van den Bemt; M Chow; C J De Blaey; L T W De Jong-Van den Berg; J R B J Brouwers Journal: Br J Clin Pharmacol Date: 2002-03 Impact factor: 4.335