[Reliability of Primary Care computerised medication records].

Area of Science:

• Pharmacovigilance
• Health Informatics
• Clinical Pharmacy

Background:

• Accurate patient medication information is crucial for safe hospital admissions.
• Primary Care (PC) computerised medication records are a potential source of this information.
• The reliability of these PC records for chronic medications needs thorough evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the reliability of PC computerised medication records for chronic medications.
• To identify factors associated with discrepancies in these records.
• To assess the suitability of PC records as a sole information source during hospital admission.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at a General Referral Hospital in Murcia.
• 308 patients admitted to the cardiology-chest diseases unit were included.
• Medication records were compared against pharmacist interviews, with discrepancies analyzed using multivariate logistic regression.

Main Results:

• A high rate of discrepancies (97.1%) was observed between PC records and patient interviews.
• Concordance of active ingredients was 83.7%, dropping to 34.7% when dosage was considered.
• Omission of frequency (35.6%) was the most common discrepancy, followed by commission (14.6%) and drug omission (12.7%).

Conclusions:

• PC computerised medication records demonstrate insufficient reliability as a sole source of patient chronic medication information upon hospital admission.
• Older age (>65), multiple chronic diseases, and prescription of narcotic or psychotropic drugs are associated with higher discrepancy rates.
• Clinical pharmacists and healthcare providers should exercise caution when relying solely on PC records.