The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients
Abstract Background Medication discrepancies are seen frequently in hospital setting upon admission or discharge. Medication Reconciliation service is a practice designed to ensure that patients’ medications are ordered in a correct manner upon hospital admission, thus reducing the risk of having me...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2018-12-01
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| Series: | BMC Health Services Research |
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| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-018-3795-1 |
| _version_ | 1818047069694197760 |
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| author | Rana Abu Farha Khawla Abu Hammour Sayida Al-Jamei Raja AlQudah Mohammed Zawiah |
| author_facet | Rana Abu Farha Khawla Abu Hammour Sayida Al-Jamei Raja AlQudah Mohammed Zawiah |
| author_sort | Rana Abu Farha |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Medication discrepancies are seen frequently in hospital setting upon admission or discharge. Medication Reconciliation service is a practice designed to ensure that patients’ medications are ordered in a correct manner upon hospital admission, thus reducing the risk of having medication discrepancies. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of medication discrepancies and their clinical seriousness in pediatric patients at the time of hospital admission. Methods A prevalence cross-sectional study was conducted at the pediatric departement at the Jordan University hospital between March–May 2018. During the study period, 100 pediatric patients were enrolled using a convenience sampling method. Patients’ medical records were reviewed by two clinical pharmacist-reserachers to obtain patients' demographic, medical, and admission medication information. All parents were interviewed to obtain information regarding their children’s Best Possible Medication History (BPMH). Following data collection, differences between patient’s current admission medications and the BPMH were identified as medication discrepancies, and then they were classified into either undocumented intentional or unintentional discrepancies. Results Among the 100 medication records reviewed, 13.0% (13 out of 100) contained at least one unintentional discrepancy, with the majority (n = 11, 84.6%) being classified to be associated with mild potential harm to patients. Of those discrepancies, 8 were omission of medications (61.5%) and 5 were addition of unnecessary medication (38.5%). On the other hand, 35.0% (35 out of 100) of medication records contained at least one intentional undocumented discrepancy. Conclusions This study revealed that unintentional medication discrepancies exist at the time of hospital admission for pediatric patients but with low proportion. The low proportion of medication discrepancies might be explained by the recent implementation of medication reconciliation service at the studied hospital. Also, intentional undocumented discrepancies were common, which may carry a potential harm to such vulnerable population at discharge. These data may inform the need for a strict policies to regulate medication documentation, thus decreasing the possibilities of medication errors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T09:59:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6a53b923e25f417b8ecc3ba1cba02c84 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1472-6963 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T09:59:56Z |
| publishDate | 2018-12-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Health Services Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-6a53b923e25f417b8ecc3ba1cba02c842022-12-22T01:53:23ZengBMCBMC Health Services Research1472-69632018-12-011811710.1186/s12913-018-3795-1The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patientsRana Abu Farha0Khawla Abu Hammour1Sayida Al-Jamei2Raja AlQudah3Mohammed Zawiah4Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private UniversityDepartment of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of JordanDepartment of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of JordanDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private UniversityDepartment of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Clinical Pharmacy, Al-Hodeida UniversityAbstract Background Medication discrepancies are seen frequently in hospital setting upon admission or discharge. Medication Reconciliation service is a practice designed to ensure that patients’ medications are ordered in a correct manner upon hospital admission, thus reducing the risk of having medication discrepancies. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of medication discrepancies and their clinical seriousness in pediatric patients at the time of hospital admission. Methods A prevalence cross-sectional study was conducted at the pediatric departement at the Jordan University hospital between March–May 2018. During the study period, 100 pediatric patients were enrolled using a convenience sampling method. Patients’ medical records were reviewed by two clinical pharmacist-reserachers to obtain patients' demographic, medical, and admission medication information. All parents were interviewed to obtain information regarding their children’s Best Possible Medication History (BPMH). Following data collection, differences between patient’s current admission medications and the BPMH were identified as medication discrepancies, and then they were classified into either undocumented intentional or unintentional discrepancies. Results Among the 100 medication records reviewed, 13.0% (13 out of 100) contained at least one unintentional discrepancy, with the majority (n = 11, 84.6%) being classified to be associated with mild potential harm to patients. Of those discrepancies, 8 were omission of medications (61.5%) and 5 were addition of unnecessary medication (38.5%). On the other hand, 35.0% (35 out of 100) of medication records contained at least one intentional undocumented discrepancy. Conclusions This study revealed that unintentional medication discrepancies exist at the time of hospital admission for pediatric patients but with low proportion. The low proportion of medication discrepancies might be explained by the recent implementation of medication reconciliation service at the studied hospital. Also, intentional undocumented discrepancies were common, which may carry a potential harm to such vulnerable population at discharge. These data may inform the need for a strict policies to regulate medication documentation, thus decreasing the possibilities of medication errors.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-018-3795-1PrevalenceDiscrepanciesPediatricsMedication reconciliationJordan |
| spellingShingle | Rana Abu Farha Khawla Abu Hammour Sayida Al-Jamei Raja AlQudah Mohammed Zawiah The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients BMC Health Services Research Prevalence Discrepancies Pediatrics Medication reconciliation Jordan |
| title | The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients |
| title_full | The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients |
| title_fullStr | The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients |
| title_full_unstemmed | The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients |
| title_short | The prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients |
| title_sort | prevalence and clinical seriousness of medication discrepancies identified upon hospital admission of pediatric patients |
| topic | Prevalence Discrepancies Pediatrics Medication reconciliation Jordan |
| url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-018-3795-1 |
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