Medications Related Emergency Admissions: Causes and Recommendations

Adverse drug events could require a patient to visit the emergency department, many of these visits lead to hospital admissions. A retrospective study, October 2015 to March 2016, examined the severity and factors contributing to medications related emergency visits leading to admissions at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Out of 698 reviewed patients, 92 were medications related admissions. Adverse drug reactions were the primary cause (46.7%), drug prescribing (30.4%), compliance (14.1%), and drug dosing (8.7%). The majority of cases were of moderate severity (82.6%). Most medications involved in emergency admissions were antihypertensive (18.4%), chemotherapy (17.4%), anticoagulant (15.2%), and anti-diabetics (12%). Emergency admissions secondary to medication could be minimized whenever the causes of problems are identified. Motivating physicians to apply shared decision making strategy during prescribing and involving pharmacists in emergency and ambulatory care setting is highly important and to educate patients and support healthcare providers in making best medications related decisions.