Medication errors are common among primary care providers; however, the number of mistakes could be reduced significantly with the use of in-house pharmacists.
A comprehensive study, led by Tony Avery, Professor of Primary Health Care in the School of Community Health Sciences at The University of Nottingham, involved at-risk patients in 72 general practices. Patients were taking the drugs most commonly and consistently associated with medication errors. Study results were published recently in The Lancet.
Each practice was randomly chosen to receive either computerized feedback on patients at risk or computerized feedback with support from a pharmacist to correct any errors detected. Upon follow-up 6 months later, the practices receiving pharmacist support had significantly fewer prescribing errors.
Professor Avery said, “Our study has shown remarkable reductions in prescribing errors…Not only would this help prevent unnecessary harm to patients, but it may also reduce the costs associated with dealing with prescribing errors, which sometimes require hospital admission.”
Source: University of Nottingham.