Adrienne S. Allen, MD, MPH; Thomas D. Sequist, MD, MPH
Grant Support: Dr. Allen was funded by a National Institutes of Health Institutional National Research Service Award (T32HP10251-02).
Potential Conflicts of Interest: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M12-1182.
Reproducible Research Statement: Study protocol and statistical code: Available from Dr. Allen (e-mail, aallen0@partners.org). Data set: Not available.
Requests for Single Reprints: Adrienne S. Allen, MD, MPH, North Shore Physicians Group, 104 Endicott Street, Suite 104, Danvers, MA 01923; e-mail, aallen0@partners.org.
Current Author Addresses: Dr. Allen: North Shore Physicians Group, 104 Endicott Street, Suite 104, Danvers, MA 01923.
Dr. Sequist: Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 1620 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02120.
Author Contributions: Conception and design: A.S. Allen, T.D. Sequist.
Analysis and interpretation of the data: A.S. Allen, T.D. Sequist.
Drafting of the article: A.S. Allen, T.D. Sequist.
Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: A.S. Allen, T.D. Sequist.
Final approval of the article: T.D. Sequist.
Statistical expertise: T.D. Sequist.
Collection and assembly of data: A.S. Allen, T.D. Sequist.
Most physician offices do not transmit orders for medication discontinuation to the pharmacy, creating the potential for errors in dispensing of previously prescribed medications. Electronic health records offer the potential to assess this patient safety concern.
To assess the frequency of and potential patient harm associated with pharmacy dispensing of discontinued medications in the ambulatory setting.
Retrospective cohort study.
Multispecialty group practice in eastern Massachusetts using an electronic health record.
30 406 adult patients with an electronic discontinuation order for antihypertensive, antiplatelet, anticoagulant, oral hypoglycemic, and statin medications between November 2008 and October 2009.
Dispensing of discontinued medications within 12 months and associated potential patient harm.
Among 83 902 targeted medications that were electronically discontinued, 1218 (1.5% [95% CI, 1.4% to 1.5%]) were subsequently dispensed by the pharmacy a mean of 1.0 (SD, 0.3) time during the 12-month follow-up. Among the top 10 most frequently electronically discontinued medications, the rate of subsequent dispensing by a pharmacy ranged from 0.9% for metformin to 2.5% for metoprolol. Manual chart review of 416 medication-dispensing events that were predefined as high risk according to an automated algorithm identified potential harm in 50 (12%) cases, including clinical reactions (n = 18), laboratory abnormalities (n = 17), duplicated medication classes dispensed (n = 8), and potential allergic reactions (n = 7).
Information on pharmacy dispensing was available for only 52% of medication orders.
The dispensing of discontinued medications represents an important ambulatory patient safety concern. Electronic health records should be used to facilitate better communication between providers and pharmacies and improve medication safety.
National Institutes of Health.
Allen AS, Sequist TD. Pharmacy Dispensing of Electronically Discontinued Medications. Ann Intern Med. 2012;157:700–705. doi: https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-157-10-201211200-00006
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© 2019
Published: Ann Intern Med. 2012;157(10):700-705.
DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-157-10-201211200-00006
Healthcare Delivery and Policy.
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