Medication Errors Detected in Primary Health Care after Hospital Discharge

Abstract

Background: Medication conciliation allows finding discrepancies and medication errors in healthcare transitions, but there are few studies performed after hospital discharge, in the context of primary health care. Therefore, the main aim of this research was to evaluate the process of medication conciliation in primary health care, after hospital discharge. We further sought to analyze some demographic aspects of the patients that could be associated with potential discrepancies. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using the database which contained the records generated by the medication reconciliations performed by the physicians of the Andalusian Public Health Service, in Spain. Results: A total of 6115 medication conciliations were analyzed, and discrepancies were found in 73.7% of them. A total of 50.6% were medication errors, the most frequent being medication omission. Medication errors were more prevalent in women of 65 years and older. Conclusions: After hospital discharge, most patients show medication discrepancies in their records, particularly older women. To prevent this, primary health care plays an essential role in the conciliation process, therefore more research is needed in this context.