The effects of a patients' own drugs scheme on the incidence and severity of medication administration errors

Abstract

Abstract Background Many UK hospitals are introducing patients' own drugs (PODs) schemes, in which patients' own medication is used during their stay. It has been suggested that these will reduce medication administration errors (MAEs), particularly those due to medication unavailability. Objective To explore the effects of introducing a PODs system on the incidence and severity of MAEs. Method and setting An observational method was used to identify MAEs before and after introducing a PODs system on one surgical and one medical ward in a teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. MAEs were classified as being due to unavailability (U-MAEs) or other reasons (O-MAEs). A validated severity assessment method was applied to the MAEs identified. Key results The overall MAE rate for the traditional ward pharmacy system was 4.3 per cent and for the PODs system it was 4.2 per cent (P=0.99, chi square test). There were also no significant differences in U-MAE or O-MAE rates, types of MAE or their severity. There were several potential reasons why the PODs system did not reduce U-MAEs. These included the informal use of patients' own medication in the traditional ward pharmacy system and one patient prescribed a non-formulary drug who accounted for many of the U-MAEs observed. Logistic regression analyses indicated that U-MAE rates were affected by time of day and day of week, and O-MAE rates by day of week and administering nurse. Conclusion It was concluded that the introduction of a PODs system had little effect on MAEs.