Adverse drug reaction reporting in Australian hospitals

Objective To determine the status of adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting in Australian hospitals. Method Postal questionnaire to all 299 directors of pharmacy in Australian hospitals. Key findings The response rate was 49.5%. Hospitals of different size were well represented: <100 beds (23%), 100–199 beds (35%) and 200–499 beds (30%). ADR policies were reported by 67% of pharmacy departments. In most hospitals, doctors or pharmacists were responsible for ADR submissions to the Australian ADR Advisory Committee (ADRAC). Follow‐up action included reports to Drug and Therapeutics Committees (57%) and drug bulletins (37%). Advice on ADRs was forwarded to the patient, the general practitioner (GP) and the community pharmacist by 96%, 89% and 11% of hospitals. Methods of informing patients were verbal (91%), card (17%) or letter (13%). Methods used to notify GPs included discharge summary (70%), letter (26%) or via the patient (15%). Data from ADRAC indicated a median 2.5 (range 0–362) reports from participating hospitals in 2000. The median ADR reporting rate was 0.02% (range 0–1.09) of patient admissions. There was no association between ADR reporting rates and the existence of an ADR policy or a centralised ADR reporting system. There was an association between hospital ADR reporting rates and provision of feedback or a reward for ADR reporting ( P <0.001). Conclusions Procedures or policies for ADR reporting are available in most Australian hospitals but this has no direct effect on ADR reporting rates. These findings suggest a gap between policy and implementation of ADR reporting. Strategies to improve ADR reporting could include improved feedback and electronic submissions to ADRAC from a centralised service.