BACKGROUND: A transition from one health care setting to another increases the risk of medication errors. Several strategies have been applied to improve care transitions and reduce adverse clinical outcomes. Pharmacist intervention during and after hospitalization has been frequently studied and show a variable effect on these outcomes.

ObjectiveTo assess medical teams’ ability to recognize adverse drug events (ADEs) in older inpatients.MethodsThe study cohort comprised 250 patients aged 65 years or older consecutively admitted to Internal Medicine wards of three hospitals in the Netherlands between April and November 2007. An independent expert team identified ADEs present upon admission or occurring during hospitalization by a structured retrospective patient chart review. For all ADEs identified, the expert team assessed causality, severity, preventability, and recognition by medical teams.ResultsThe medical teams did not recognize 19.9 % of all ADEs present upon admission {60.4 ADEs [95 % confidence interval (CI) 51.5–70.8] per 100 hospitalizations} and 20.3 % of all ADEs occurring during the hospital stay [47.2 ADEs (95 % CI 39.4–56.5) per 100 hospitalizations]. Unrecognized ADEs were significantly more often ADEs with possible causality (p=0.014, df=1), ADEs caused by medication errors (p<0.001, df=1), and ADEs not manifesting as new symptoms (p<0.001, df=1). The medical teams did not recognize 23.2 % of mild to moderately severe ADEs and 16.5 % of severe, life-threatening, or fatal ADEs. The recognition of ADEs varied with event type.ConclusionsThe recognition of ADEs by medical teams was substantial for those ADEs with evident causality and with clinically apparent and severe consequences. ADEs mimicking underlying pathologies with a lower severity went unrecognized much more often, as did those resulting only in abnormal laboratory values. Tools to improve the recognition of ADEs by medical teams should, therefore, focus on those ADEs that are more challenging to detect.

BackgroundOlder patients are at high risk for experiencing Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) during hospitalization. To be able to reduce ADEs in these vulnerable patients, hospitals first need to measure the occurrence of ADEs, especially those that are preventable. However, data on preventable ADEs (pADEs) occurring during hospitalization in older patients are scarce, and no ‘gold standard’ for the identification of ADEs exists.MethodologyThe study was conducted in three hospitals in the Netherlands in 2007. ADEs were retrospectively identified by a team of experts using a comprehensive and structured patient chart review (PCR) combined with a trigger-tool as an aid. This ADE identification strategy was applied to a cohort of 250 older hospitalized patients. To estimate the intra- and inter-rater reliabilities, Cohen’s kappa values were calculated.Principal FindingsIn total, 118 ADEs were detected which occurred in 62 patients. This ADE yield was 1.1 to 2.7 times higher in comparison to other ADE studies in older hospitalized patients. Of the 118 ADEs, 83 (70.3%) were pADEs; 51 pADEs (43.2% of all ADEs identified) caused serious patient harm. Patient harm caused by ADEs resulted in various events. The overall intra-rater agreement of the developed strategy was substantial (κ = 0.74); the overall inter-rater agreement was only fair (κ = 0.24).Conclusions/SignificanceThe ADE identification strategy provided a detailed insight into the scope of ADEs occurring in older hospitalized patients, and showed that the majority of (serious) ADEs can be prevented. Several strategy related aspects, as well as setting/study specific aspects, may have contributed to the results gained. These aspects should be considered whenever ADE measurements need to be conducted. The results regarding pADEs can be used to design tailored interventions to effectively reduce harm caused by medication errors. Improvement of the inter-rater reliability of a PCR remains challenging.

This study provides evidence supporting the formal integration of a clinical pharmacist into the healthcare team with the aim of improving prescribing appropriateness for institutionalized elderly Dutch patients. Overall MAI scores for all long-term medications used by a group of elderly patients improved significantly after a pharmacist-led medication review. This is an important finding because quality of prescribing is assuming increasing importance as a means of preventing avoidable medication-related harm.

Introduction of a multifaceted medication safety programme in NH facilities by a pharmacy team is a tool towards safer medication administration practice in residents with swallowing difficulties. Commitment on organisational level is, however, vital to achieve sustainable improvements.