Quality of medication information in discharge summaries from hospitals: an audit of electronic patient records

摘要

Abstract Background Low quality of medication information in discharge summaries from hospitals may jeopardize optimal therapy and put the patient at risk for medication errors and adverse drug events. Objective To audit the quality of medication information in discharge summaries and explore factors associated with the quality. Setting Helgelandssykehuset Mo i Rana, a rural hospital in central Norway. Method For each month in 2013, we randomly selected 60 discharge summaries from the Department of Medicine and Surgery (totally 720) and evaluated the medication information using eight Norwegian quality criteria. Main outcome measure Mean score per discharge summary ranging from 0 (lowest quality) to 16 (highest quality). Results Mean score per discharge summary was 7.4 (SD 2.8; range 0–14), significantly higher when evaluating medications used regularly compared to mediations used as needed (7.80 vs. 6.52; p ? Conclusion In discharge summaries from 2013, we identified a low quality of medication information in accordance with the Norwegian quality criteria. Actions for improvement are necessary and follow-up studies to monitor quality are needed.