Evaluation of unclaimed prescriptions in an ambulatory care pharmacy.

Unclaimed prescriptions, that is, those filled but not obtained by the patient, may influence patient care and pharmacy operations. The authors' objectives were to 1) describe characteristics of unclaimed prescriptions and the patients for whom these prescriptions were written, and 2) compare and contrast characteristics of prescriptions never dispensed with those that were eventually dispensed. During the 8-week study, 180 patients with 224 unclaimed prescriptions were identified at the University of Michigan Hospital's Ambulatory Care Pharmacy. The most frequent categories of unclaimed prescriptions were skin/mucous membrane, central nervous system, and anti-infective medications. In 25.9% of cases of unclaimed prescriptions, they were telephoned in by a healthcare professional as new prescriptions. Overall, 64.3% were new, rather than refill, prescriptions. Approximately two thirds of the unclaimed prescriptions were eventually dispensed. Of the characteristics evaluated for differences between unclaimed prescriptions eventually dispensed and those never dispensed, only new versus refill prescriptions and class of medication were significantly different. Most unclaimed prescriptions were eventually dispensed after a delay. However, the types of medications involved suggest that these delays from initially unclaimed prescriptions could have resulted in problems.