Accuracy of medication histories derived from an Australian cloud-based repository of prescribed and dispensed medication records.

BACKGROUND

Obtaining accurate medication histories at transitions of care is challenging, but important for patient safety. Prescription exchange services (PES) securely transfer electronic prescription and dispensing records between prescribers and pharmacies, which is potentially useful data for determining medication histories.

AIM

To evaluate the accuracy of PES-derived medication histories.

METHODS

Prospective observational study, at two Australian tertiary-referral health services. A convenience sample of adult inpatients was recruited. The main outcome measure was: proportion of patients with ≥1 errors in their PES-derived pre-admission medication histories, compared with gold-standard best-possible medication histories, including prescribed and non-prescribed medications, obtained by pharmacists using multiple sources including patient/carer interview.

RESULTS

Of 154 patients (median age 76 years; interquartile range (IQR) 64-84 years; median 10.0 pre-admission medications; IQR 6.0-14.0), 153 (99.4%) had ≥1 errors in their PES-derived medication history (median 6.0 errors per patient; IQR 4.0-9.0). Excluding when-required medications, 146 (94.8%) patients had >1 errors (median 4.0 errors per patient; IQR 2.0-6.0). Omission was the most common error, affecting 549 (33.3%) of 1648 current medications (median 3.0; IQR 1.0-5.0 per patient); 396 (72.1%) omissions were over-the-counter medicines. Dose-regimen errors affected 276 (25.1%) of 1099 current medications captured in PES-derived medication histories (median 1.0 error per patient; IQR 0.0-3.0). Commission errors (medications in PES-derived histories that were not current) affected 224 (16.9%) of 1323 medications (median 1.0 error per patient; IQR 1.0-2.0).

CONCLUSIONS

Medication histories derived solely from a cloud-based medication record repository had a high error rate compared with patients' actual medication use. Like all medication history sources, data from cloud-based repositories need to be verified with additional sources including the patient and/or their carer.