Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Western University, London, Canada.
BMJ Open. 2013 Jan 3;3(1):e001921. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001921.
To define geographical regions (forward sortation areas; FSAs) in Southwestern Ontario, Canada from which patients would reliably present to a hospital with linked laboratory data if they developed adverse events related to medications dispensed in outpatient pharmacies.
Descriptive research.
Forty-five hospitals in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, from 2003 to 2009.
Patients aged 66 years and older who received an outpatient prescription for any drug and presented to the emergency department in the subsequent 120 days.
The proportion of patients in a given FSA presenting to an emergency department at a hospital with linked laboratory data versus a hospital without linked laboratory data. To be included in the catchment area at least 90% of emergency department visits in an FSA must have occurred at laboratory-linked hospitals in a given year.
Over the study period, there were 649 713 emergency department visits by patients with recent prescription claims from pharmacies in 1 of 118 FSAs. In total, 141 302 of these patients presented to an emergency department at a laboratory-linked hospital. For the year 2003, 12 FSAs met our criteria to be in the catchment area and this number grew to 25 FSAs by the year 2009.
The relevant geographical regions for hospitals with linked laboratory data have been successfully identified. Studies can now be conducted using these well-defined areas to obtain reliable information on the incidence and absolute risk of presenting to hospital with laboratory abnormalities in older adults dispensed commonly prescribed medications in outpatient pharmacies.
定义加拿大安大略省西南部的地理区域（前向分类区；FSAs），如果在门诊药房配药后发生与药物相关的不良事件，患者将从这些区域可靠地前往有相关实验室数据链接的医院就诊。
描述性研究。
2003 年至 2009 年期间，加拿大安大略省西南部的 45 家医院。
年龄在 66 岁及以上的患者，他们在门诊接受了任何药物的处方，并在随后的 120 天内到急诊部就诊。
给定 FSA 中前往有相关实验室数据链接的医院就诊的患者比例与前往无相关实验室数据链接的医院就诊的患者比例。在给定年份中，至少 90%的 FSA 急诊部就诊需要在实验室链接的医院进行，该 FSA 才被包含在该区域内。
在研究期间，118 个 FSAs 中有 649713 名最近在药店配药的患者到急诊部就诊。共有 141302 名患者在有实验室链接的医院就诊。2003 年，有 12 个 FSA 符合纳入条件，到 2009 年，这一数字增加到 25 个 FSA。
已经成功确定了与具有实验室数据链接的医院相关的地理区域。现在可以使用这些定义明确的区域进行研究，以获取有关在门诊药房配药的常用药物后，老年患者因实验室异常而到医院就诊的发生率和绝对风险的可靠信息。
