Prescriptions from general practitioners and in hospital physicians requiring pharmacists' interventions

To study prescribing errors requiring pharmacists' interventions and to evaluate the potential clinical significance of the errors and omissions detected.

The pharmacists at ten community pharmacies and two out-patient hospital pharmacies recorded prescribing errors and corresponding interventions using a modified version of a previously developed registration scheme. Prescription errors with potential clinical significance were scored according to a modified version of Safety Assessment Code (SAC)-score

During the study period 85,475 prescriptions were dispensed. A total of 2385 prescribing errors were detected on 2226 (2.6%) prescriptions. The proportion of prescriptions with errors and omissions was more than four times higher on prescriptions from hospital physicians (7.1%) than on prescriptions from general practitioners (1.5%). The information on the majority (62.2%) of the prescriptions with inaccuracies had to be clarified before the drug could be dispensed. About 1/4 of the errors and omissions were of potential importance for the drug therapy. An expert panel of physicians and pharmacists judged 85% of these errors and omissions to be clinically significant. Individual physicians and pharmacists judged the clinical importance of the detected prescribing errors somewhat differently.

Pharmacists intervened on 2.6% of prescriptions, and the majority of the potentially clinically significant prescribing errors were judged as significant to the patient's drug therapy and safety.