Discrepancies in the Use of Medications

Abstract

Background: Misuse of medications is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Few studies have examined the frequency of, and factors associated with, discrepancies between what doctors prescribe and what patients take in actual practice.

European Society of Clinical Pharmacy international workshop on patient safety and pharmacy

“…Seven out of ten patients have at least one non-current prescription or duplicate prescription in the EMR and the NPR. The results are consistent with the findings that discrepancies between EMRs and claims data on the one hand and patient reported current medication use on the other, are common (3)(4)(5). Both the printouts from the EMR of the prescribed drug treatment and of the prescriptions stored in the NPR generate prescription records with brand names used by the prescriber when issuing the prescriptions.…”

Patient, Physician, Medical Assistant, and Office Visit Factors Associated With Medication List Agreement

“…Discrepancy in directions includes discrepancy in frequency, route, and as-needed status. 13,14 In an exploratory analysis, for each medication discrepancy identified, we classified the degree of harm the discrepancy could potentially cause. Because there are no classification systems for potential harm from medication list discrepancies, we developed the following 3 categories: potential for major harm, potential for minor harm, and minimal potential for harm.…”

Warnings in manufacturing: Improving hazard‐mitigation messaging through audience analysis

“…One such practice is medication sharing, defined as lending medications to someone else or taking someone else's medication (Daniel, Honein, & Moore, 2003). Medication sharing is a poorly understood, socially complex phenomenon that occurs for a variety of reasons, including consumers' inadequate understanding of critical drug-related information such as toxicity or side effects (Huott & Storrow, 1997), socioeconomic factors such as medication costs (Anglin & White, 1999;Bedell et al, 2000;Saradamma, Higginbotham, & Nichter, 2000), differences in cultural values and beliefs (Deschepper et al, 2008), ease of access from family members and friends (Daniel et al, 2003;Hurwitz, 2005), and the allure of elicit recreational usage (White, Becker-Blease, & Grace-Bishop, 2006).…”