Nicola Wright1, David Brown2, Gillian Honeywell1. 1. IOW NHS Trust, Pharmacy Department, St Mary's Hospital, Newport, UK. 2. School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The pharmacy department at St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight, UK, introduced a service whereby pharmacists took on the role of transcribing drug histories to drug charts as a method to attempt to reduce the number of discrepancies between the drug history and drug chart occurring on admission to hospital. METHOD: Between February and March 2014, 52 drug histories transcribed by pharmacists and 52 transcribed by doctors were validated to identify any discrepancies. These discrepancies were then reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel to determine the potential consequence. RESULTS: Doctors were found to be 54 times more likely to make an unintentional discrepancy than pharmacists (χ2=185.5, p<0.001). The absolute risk reduction when a pharmacist transcribed the medicines was 36%; the number needed to treat was 2.8 (CI 95% 2.43 to 3.21). CONCLUSION: The pharmacist transcribing service has been shown to significantly reduce the number of discrepancies.
OBJECTIVES: The pharmacy department at St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight, UK, introduced a service whereby pharmacists took on the role of transcribing drug histories to drug charts as a method to attempt to reduce the number of discrepancies between the drug history and drug chart occurring on admission to hospital. METHOD: Between February and March 2014, 52 drug histories transcribed by pharmacists and 52 transcribed by doctors were validated to identify any discrepancies. These discrepancies were then reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel to determine the potential consequence. RESULTS: Doctors were found to be 54 times more likely to make an unintentional discrepancy than pharmacists (χ2=185.5, p<0.001). The absolute risk reduction when a pharmacist transcribed the medicines was 36%; the number needed to treat was 2.8 (CI 95% 2.43 to 3.21). CONCLUSION: The pharmacist transcribing service has been shown to significantly reduce the number of discrepancies.
Entities:
Keywords:
CLINICAL PHARMACY; Drug History; Electronic prescribing and medicines administration system; Medicines reconciliation; Pharmacist; Pharmacist transcribing; Unintentional discrepancy
Authors: Peter Pronovost; Brad Weast; Mandalyn Schwarz; Rhonda M Wyskiel; Donna Prow; Shelley N Milanovich; Sean Berenholtz; Todd Dorman; Pamela Lipsett Journal: J Crit Care Date: 2003-12 Impact factor: 3.425