ArticleBMC health services research2025
Medication information completeness in discharge summaries from a Norwegian rural hospital - a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The impact of collaborative pharmaceutical care on hospital discharge medication error prevalence: A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Streamlining Patient Transitions: A Surgical Discharge Card Initiative at Almanagil Teaching Hospital.Cureus · 2025Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundHospital discharge summaries are crucial for transferring patient information to subsequent care providers, yet they often contain incomplete and incorrect medication details. This may lead to inappropriate medication therapy, medication-related problems and unnecessary patient harm. A 2014 study in Norway highlighted a low level of medication information completeness at a rural hospital. This study aimed to audit the completeness of medication information in discharge summaries from the same hospital and to identify factors that could improve medication safety in future efforts.
methodsWe randomly selected 240 discharge summaries from 2019 and applied seven national criteria defining the necessary medication information in discharge summaries; (1) reasons for changes in medication prescribing during hospitalization, (2) generic names, (3) administration forms, (4) dosage strengths, (5) dosage regimes stated, (6) indications for use and (7) the medication status categories new, changed, short course. A quantile regression model was applied to analyze factors associated with the medication information completeness in these summaries, adjusting for both patient- and hospital-related variables.
resultsFrom 2550 assessed medications, information completeness in discharge summaries ranged from 0.0 to 1.0, with a mean of 0.904 (SD 0.15). The criteria with lowest information completeness were ´indication for use´ and ´reasons for changes in medication use stated at discharge´. A significant factor in enhancing completeness was the use of a digital tool for compiling the medication list, which increased the completeness coefficient by 0.23 to 0.83 when applied.
conclusionsThe completeness of medication information in discharge summaries from Helgelandssykehuset Mo i Rana was high and has significantly improved since 2014. The use of electronic tools for compiling medication lists notably enhances information completeness, while free-text lists should be avoided. This should be considered when developing future electronic medications management systems and tools to ensure quality of medication information.
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