Evaluation of a patient-completed versus health professional-conducted medication history

Medication histories are considered an essential component of clinical pharmacy practice, but they are time-consuming. A study was undertaken to determine how reliable and time-saving a patient-completed medication history form alone could prove to be compared with the amount of information recorded in the medical chart and with a pharmacist-patient form review. Within 24 hours of admission, the patient was given the form to fill out. The pharmacist returned 24 hours later and reviewed the form with the patient. Of 13 questions asked, the form was significantly superior in obtaining information to the chart in 11 and to the review in 6 (p less than 0.05 per question). The review rated better than the chart on all questions (p less than 0.05 per question). The amount of time required to hand out and review the form (mean 7.35 min) was not significantly different from the time required of a pharmacist to conduct a conventional medication history, according to the Canada Workload Measurement Study statistics. It can therefore be concluded that the patient-completed form is not an effective or time-saving method of conducting a medication history.