INTRODUCTION Medication errors are common, with studies reporting at least one error per patient encounter. At hospital discharge, medication errors vary from 15%-38%. However, studies assessing the effect of an internally developed electronic (E)-prescription system at discharge from an emergency department (ED) are comparatively minimal. Additionally, commercially available electronic solutio...

BACKGROUND We sought to measure population-level adherence to antihyperlipidemics, antihypertensives, and oral hypoglycemics, and to develop a model for early identification of subjects at high risk of long-term poor adherence. METHODS Prescription-filling data for 2 million subjects derived from a payor's insurance claims were used to evaluate adherence to three chronic drugs over 1 year. We...

Abstract: Self-care and self-medication are common practices in any health care system. The procedure includes the usage of Over-the-counter or non-prescription drugs which obtained by individuals without a prescription from physician for treatment ailments. Lower costs, convenience, availability, ability to control one’s own illness potential benefits over-the-counter- drugs. risk drug misuse,...

BACKGROUND Understanding and improving patient safety is a key issue in medicine. One of the potential threats to patient safety is the sharing of medication among patients, which is a form of self-medication. This study analyzed experiences and attitudes of pain management physicians (PMPs) about sharing prescription analgesics among patients. METHODS This qualitative study was conducted by ...

Four national healthcare organizations - Accreditation Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada - recently collaborated to better understand and share comprehensive information about medication reconciliation in Canada. This article summarizes the key findings of their joint report titled ...

A Prescription for Safer Care: Medication Reconciliation Reducing medication-related errors is a priority for advancing safe, quality healthcare in Canada, and four national organizations are tackling it head on. Accreditation Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Canada released...

Older adults constitute just 13% of the U.S. population, but consume 35% of all prescription drugs. They are at a particularly high risk of serious adverse events due to errors in medication-taking, but little is known about the instructions community-dwelling elders receive about their medications, or how they organize their medications at home. This Issue Brief summarizes research that descri...

Self-medication with antibiotics is a major concern worldwide and a real problem with public health importance [1]. Most of the recent studies have revealed high prevalence of self-medication in some countries and reported positive correlation of excessive drug use with antimicrobial resistance [2-6]. When antibiotics are used without medical prescription, the increased risk of resistance is as...

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to assess the antihypertensive medication adherence in patients who were newly diagnosed with hypertension in Korea. METHODS Study subjects were diagnosed with hypertension for the first time by the General Health Screening in 2012 and were 65,919. As indices, visiting rate to medical institution, the antihypertensive prescription rate, medication po...

BACKGROUND in older people, medications with anticholinergic (antimuscarinic) effects are associated with adverse clinical outcomes, the risk increasing with increasing anticholinergic exposure. Many anticholinergics are recognised as potentially inappropriate and efforts to reduce prescription have been ongoing. We examined temporal trends of anticholinergic prescription and exposure in older ...