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Discontinuities in drug use upon hospital discharge
Rutger Stuffken1, Toine C G Egberts
1General Hospital Hilversum, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, 1201 DA Hilversum, The Netherlands. rstuffken@zhh.nl
Objective:
To investigate the nature and frequency of changes in drug treatment upon discharge from hospital.
Method:
All drugs of discharged patients, dispensed by an outpatient pharmacy were compared with the latest clinical medication and discontinuities were classified.
Results:
Of all prescriptions dispensed by the outpatient pharmacy, 40% had some discontinuity; most frequent were product substitution (27%) and new prescriptions, starting at the moment of discharge (11%).
Conclusion:
There is a gap in the conformity between drugs used in the hospital and the drugs dispensed by the outpatient pharmacy at the moment of discharge.
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