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Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting for Children and Young People: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Georgia Lloyd1,2, Brooke McCarthy1,3, Polly Ng1

  • 1Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health
|July 28, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Partnered pharmacist medication charting (PPMC) significantly reduced medication errors in paediatric emergency departments, preventing one error for every two patients. This approach also improved documentation and reduced length of stay.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine
  • Pharmacology
  • Patient Safety

Background:

  • Partnered pharmacist medication charting (PPMC) is known to reduce medication errors in adult hospitals.
  • Paediatric emergency departments (EDs) face unique challenges in medication safety.
  • Evaluating PPMC in a paediatric ED setting is crucial for improving care.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the impact of PPMC on medication errors in paediatric ED presentations.
  • To compare PPMC with early best possible medication history (BPMH) and usual care.
  • To evaluate secondary outcomes such as length of stay (LOS) and documentation quality.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective cohort study at a tertiary paediatric hospital.
  • Comparison of three sequential care models: usual care (T1), early BPMH (T2), and PPMC (T3).
  • Primary outcome: proportion of patients with clinically significant medication errors; secondary outcomes: LOS and documentation completion.

Main Results:

  • Medication errors decreased from 70.6% (usual care) to 5.8% with PPMC.
  • PPMC demonstrated a substantial absolute risk reduction (0.65) in medication errors.
  • Median LOS decreased from 3.3 days (usual care) to 2.3 days with PPMC (p=0.012).

Conclusions:

  • PPMC significantly reduces medication errors and high-risk errors in paediatric EDs.
  • PPMC improves medication reconciliation, dosing weight documentation, and allergy review.
  • PPMC is a scalable and effective strategy for enhancing medication safety in paediatric hospitals.
Abstract

Keywords:
emergency departmentmedication errorspaediatricspartnered pharmacist medication chartingpharmacist prescribingtransitions of care

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