Comparison of hospital admission medication lists with primary care physician and outpatient pharmacy lists.

PURPOSE: Medication reconciliation is a process to reduce errors and harm associated with loss of medication information as the patient enters and moves through the healthcare system. This study examines medication list accuracy upon hospital admission. DESIGN: This prospective study enrolled 75 English-speaking medical and surgical patients (18 years of age or older) who were taking prescription medications. The study took place at a rural, tertiary teaching hospital in the northeastern United States. Data collection occurred from November 2006 to March 2009. METHODS: Nursing admission team medication lists were reconciled with primary care physician (PCP) and outpatient pharmacy (OP) lists. Outcome measures were accuracy of medication history generated by admission nurses (ANs) compared with PCP and OP lists, and identification of factors influencing probability of accurate medication list generation by ANs. The Generalized Estimating Equations modeling approach was used to compare AN, OP, and PCP medication list accuracy. Additionally, sex and age were analyzed as covariates and included in the model. FINDINGS: Forty-five males and 30 females (N= 75) with a mean age of 60 years (SD 15) participated. Fifty-seven subjects (76%) used over-the-counter or herbal medications, but the AN recorded only 31 (41%) cases. Patients received outpatient care from 1 to 12 providers. Forty patients (67%) obtained medications from one pharmacy, 22 (29%) from two, and 3 (4%) from three pharmacies. OP medication lists were completely accurate more often than PCP but not AN lists (19/75 [25%] OP vs. 6/75 [8%] PCP vs. 14/75 [19%] AN; 95% confidence interval [CI] of the difference [0.07, 0.50]). No difference between AN and PCP list accuracy was found. Completely accurate AN lists were more than twice as likely with male and younger patients (95% CI of the difference [1.07, 6.22] and [0.94, 0.99], respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Like other studies, this study showed admission medication reconciliation lists are often inaccurate. Our results suggest that verification of admission medication lists with outpatient provider lists may improve accuracy. Patients, with guidance from outpatient care providers, should assume accountability for maintaining accurate medication lists. A secure, universal, interactive electronic medical record may be a future solution for organizing and sharing medication data between providers. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Medication reconciliation upon inpatient admission remains a high-volume and high-acuity problem. We found that not only hospital medication lists, but source lists, including those maintained by the patient, the PCP, and the OP, are vastly inaccurate.

Is the Grading of Liver Injuries a Useful Clinical Tool in the Initial Management of Blunt Trauma Patients?

BACKGROUND: Computed tomography (CT) has become the preferred method for evaluation of the abdomen for victims of blunt trauma. Grading of liver injuries, primarily by CT, has been advocated as a measure of severity and, by implication, the likelihood for intervention or complications. We have sought to determine if grading of liver injuries, as a clinical tool, affects immediate or extended management of patients. METHODS: We have retrospectively reviewed all patients sustaining blunt liver injuries as diagnosed by CT over a five-year period at a Level I trauma center to determine if grading of injury influenced management. The AAST organ scaling system was utilized (major grade 4-5, minor grade 1-3), as well as the ISS, AIS, mortality, morbidity, and treatment. There were 133 patients available for review. The patients were grouped into major (n = 20) and minor (n = 113) liver injuries and operative (n = 12) and nonoperative (n = 121) management. RESULTS: Major liver injuries had a higher ISS (39 + 13 vs. 27 + 15, p = 0.001) and were more likely to require operative intervention (5/20 vs. 7/113, p = 0.02). Mortality in this group was not different (major vs. minor), and there were no differences in the incidence of complications. Twelve patients (9%) required operation, all for hemodynamic instability, all within 24 h, and 11/12 within 6 h. At operation 8/12 patients had other sources of bleeding beside the liver injury, and 7/12 had minor hepatic injuries. The operative patients had higher ISS and AIS scores (head/neck, chest, abdomen, extremities) than those managed nonoperatively. More patients died in the operative group (6/12 vs. 8/121, p = 0.0003). There were more pulmonary (6/12 vs. 16/121, p = 0.005), cardiovascular (6/12 vs. 19/121, p = 0.01), and infectious (5/12 vs. 20/121, p = 0.049) complications in the operative group. There were 14 deaths overall; 13/14 were due to traumatic brain injury, and 8/14 required urgent operation for hemorrhage. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, grading of liver injuries does not seem to influence immediate management. Physiologic behavior dictated management and need for operative intervention, as well as prognosis. However, both major hepatic injuries and need for early operation reflected overall severity and the possibility of associated injuries.

Medication reconciliation in a rural trauma population.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Medication errors during hospitalization can lead to adverse drug events. Because of preoccupation by health care providers with life-threatening injuries, trauma patients may be particularly prone to medication errors. Medication reconciliation on admission can result in decreased medication errors and adverse drug events in this patient population. The purpose of this study is to determine the accuracy of medication histories obtained on trauma patients by initial health care providers compared to a medication reconciliation process by a designated clinical pharmacist after the patient's admission and secondarily to determine whether trauma-associated factors affected medication accuracy. METHODS: This was a prospective enrollment study during 13 months in which trauma patients admitted to a Level I trauma center were enrolled in a stepwise medication reconciliation process by the clinical pharmacist. The setting was a rural Level I trauma center. Patients admitted to the trauma service were studied. The intervention was medication reconciliation by a clinical pharmacist. The main outcome measure was accuracy of medication history by initial trauma health care providers compared to a medication reconciliation process by a clinical pharmacist who compared all sources, including telephone calls to pharmacies. Patients taking no medications (whether correctly identified as such or not) were not analyzed in these results. Variables examined included admission medication list accuracy, age, trauma team activation mode, Injury Severity Score, and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. RESULTS: Two hundred thirty-four patients were enrolled. Eighty-four of 234 patients (36%) had an Injury Severity Score greater than 15. Medications were reconciled within an average of 3 days of admission (range 1 to 8) by the clinical pharmacist. Overall, medications as reconciled by the clinical pharmacist were recorded correctly for 15% of patients. Admission trauma team medication lists were inaccurate in 224 of 234 cases (96%). Admitting nurses' lists were more accurate than the trauma team's (11% versus 4%; 95% confidence interval 2.5% to 11.2%). Errors were found by the clinical pharmacist in medication name, strength, route, and frequency. No patients (0/20) with admission GCS less than 13 had accurate medication lists. Seventy of 84 patients (83%) with an Injury Severity Score greater than 15 had inaccurate medication lists. Ten of 234 patients (4%) were ordered wrong medications, and 1 adverse drug event (hypoglycemia) occurred. The median duration of the reconciliation process was 2 days. Only 12% of cases were completed in 1 day, and almost 25% required 3 or more (maximum 8) days. CONCLUSION: This study showed that medication history recorded on admission was inaccurate. This patient population overall was susceptible to medication inaccuracies from multiple sources, even with duplication of medication histories by initial health care providers. Medication reconciliation for trauma patients by a clinical pharmacist may improve safety and prevent adverse drug events but did not occur quickly in this setting.

Use of a remifentanil and propofol combination in outpatients to facilitate rapid discharge home.

The goal of our study was to evaluate whether the combination of remifentanil and propofol facilitated shorter recovery time and decreased charges compared with conventional balanced anesthesia. We studied 49 patients, aged 13 to 75 years, who underwent elective outpatient surgery. All data were analyzed using the Pearson chi2 and the Student t test; results were considered statistically significant at a P value of.05 or less. Group 1 received a remifentanil-propofol combination and group 2, a conventional balanced anesthetic. Group 1 had decreased mean operating room (dollar 280.83 vs dollar 337.42; P = .05) and operating room plus postanesthesia care unit (PACU) (dollar 442.67 vs dollar 544.62) charges (P = .02). Group 1 had less PACU time (48.26 vs 59.62 minutes) and 2 group 1 patients bypassed the PACU. We conclude that a remifentanil-propofol combination is more cost effective than conventional balanced anesthetics and enables some patients to bypass the PACU, resulting in quicker discharge. Our findings have important implications for ambulatory surgery centers and office-based practices.

Traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage and QTc prolongation.

OBJECTIVE: Spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) causes a prolonged corrected QT interval (QTc) in 25% to 90% of patients, but whether this occurs with traumatic SAH (tSAH) is unknown. This investigation was conducted to determine whether QTc prolongation occurs with tSAH and to evaluate QTc prolongation with respect to severity of tSAH. DESIGN: Records of 104 consecutive tSAH patients were reviewed. A QTc was calculated on posttrauma day (PTD) 0, 1, and 3. Cranial computed tomography (CT) scans were graded for severity using a previously validated scale. QTc intervals were compared based on CT scan severity. SETTING: Pennsylvania level II trauma center. PATIENTS: Trauma patients with tSAH. INTERVENTIONS: None MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: QTc prolongation occurred in 67% of those with tSAH. Mean QTc intervals for PTD0, PTD1, and PTD3 were 470 +/- 69 ms, 467 +/- 72 ms, and 465 +/- 50 ms, respectively. As the severity of the tSAH increased, the average QTc became more prolonged (Pearson's r = 0.855, P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: tSAH is a common cause of an acquired prolonged QTc syndrome. As the tSAH becomes more severe, the QTc becomes more prolonged.