Analysis of the discrepancies identified during medication reconciliation on patient admission in cardiology units: a descriptive study

Abstract

Objectives: this observational study aimed to describe the discrepancies identified during medication reconciliation on patient admission to cardiology units in a large hospital.Methods: the medication history of patients was collected within 48 hours after admission, and intentional and unintentional discrepancies were classified as omission, duplication, dose, frequency, timing, and route of drug administration. Results: most of the patients evaluated were women (58.0%) with a mean age of 59 years, and 75.5% of the patients had a Charlson comorbidity index score between 1 and 3. Of the 117 discrepancies found, 50.4% were unintentional. Of these, 61.0% involved omission, 18.6% involved dosage, 18.6% involved timing, and 1.7% involved the route of drug administration. Conclusion: this study revealed a high prevalence of discrepancies, most of which were related to omissions, and 50% were unintentional. These results reveal the number of drugs that are not reincorporated into the treatment of patients, which can have important clinical consequences.

Creating and evaluating an opportunity for medication reconciliation in the adult population of South Africa to improve patient care

“…For the remaining study participants (48.97%), the majority of the medicines brought in were labelled, and in the original packaging, and consequently could be identified. This is very similar to a study performed in Brazil (54), where half of the patients (50%) brought their medication to the hospital on admission and close to 30% brought a list of medicines they were currently taking. The importance of reviewing actual medicines brought in by patients on admission by healthcare workers have also been highlighted in other studies (55).…”

“…When evaluating the origin of medication discrepancies, the most prevalent were omissions (medications used before admission but not transcribed during hospitalisation) which accounted for more than 60% (66.12%) of the interventions (Table 7). The predominance of omissions may be related to the collection of incomplete and inaccurate medication histories (54). Other studies have shown similar results, particularly with respect to a higher incidence of omissions (71)(72)(73)(74), which needs to be addressed.…”

Magnitude and factors associated with medication discrepancies identified through medication reconciliation at care transitions of a tertiary hospital in eastern Ethiopia

“…Various characteristics are highlighted to predict harmful discrepancies [ 21 ]. The number of medications received by a patient [ 18 , 22 ], older age, sex (woman), more frequent admission in the past 12 months and reason for patient admission were key predictors indicated in relation with potential harmful discrepancies [ 2 , 21 , 23 ]. In some studies, drug omission was reported as a frequent cause of unintended medication discrepancy [ 8 , 13 – 15 ].…”

Potential drug-food interactions in patients hospitalized in the Cardiology Unit

“…The large number of drugs in prescriptions is related to the characteristic of polypharmacy of cardiology patients [14]. Research shows that most patients admitted to the cardiology unit take antihypertensives, being this group the one with the greatest recurrence of prescriptions in the present study [14,15].…”