ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2017
Hospital electronic prescribing system implementation impact on discharge information communication and prescribing errors: a before and after study.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- How effective are electronic medication systems in reducing medication error rates and associated harm among hospital inpatients? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2021Pooled it
- The impact of health information technology on prescribing errors in hospitals: a systematic review and behaviour change technique analysis.Systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Prevalence and Nature of Medication Errors and Medication-Related Harm Following Discharge from Hospital to Community Settings: A Systematic Review.Drug safety · 2020Pooled it
- Electronic prescribing and patient safety: a rigour-stratified systematic review of medication error, adverse drug events, workflow, and communication.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Review
- Article
- Digital health in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Chronic diseases and translational medicine · 2023Review
- Structure, content, unsafe abbreviations, and completeness of discharge summaries: A retrospective analysis in a University Hospital in Austria.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2021Article
- The impact of a computerized physician order entry system implementation on 20 different criteria of medication documentation-a before-and-after study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2021Article
- Assessment of an electronic patient record system on discharge prescribing errors in a Tertiary University Hospital.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2021Article
- Assessing the impact of a quality improvement program on the quality and timeliness of discharge documents: A before and after study.Medicine · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
purposeThe study aimed to test the hypothesis that hospital electronic prescribing and medicine administration system (HEPMA) implementation impacted patient discharge letter quality, nature and frequency of prescribing errors.
methodA quasi experimental before and after retrospective case note review was conducted in one United Kingdom district general hospital. The total sample size was 318 (random samples of 159 before and after implementation), calculated to achieve a 10% error reduction with a power of 80% and p < 0.05. Adult patients discharged after ≥24-h inpatient stay were assessed for discharge information documentation quality using a modified validated discharge document template. Prescribing errors were classified as medicine omissions, commissions, incorrect dose/frequency/duration, drug interactions, therapeutic duplications or missing/inaccurate allergy information. Post-implementation assessments were undertaken 4 months following HEPMA implementation. Error severity was determined by a multidisciplinary panel consensus using the Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (MATCH) study validated scoring system.
resultsThere were no statistically significant differences in patient demographics between the pre- and post-implementation groups. Discharge information documentation quality improved; allergy documentation increased from 11 to 159/159 (p < 0.0001). The number of patients with prescribing errors reduced significantly from 158 to 37/159 (p < 0.001). Prescribing error category incidence identified in pre-implementation patients was reduced (e.g. omission incidence from 66 to 18/159 (p < 0.001)), although a new error type (sociotechnical [errors caused by the system]) was identified post-implementation (n = 8 patients). Post-implementation prescribing errors severity rating identified 8/37 as likely to cause potential patient harm.
conclusionHEPMA implementation was associated with improved discharge documentation quality, statistically significant prescribing error reduction and prescribing error type alteration. There remains a need to be alert for potential prescribing errors.
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