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Opportunities for changes in the drug product design to enhance medication safety in older people: Evaluation of a national public portal for medication incidents
Author(s) -
KarapinarÇarkit Fatma,
Bemt Patricia M.L.A.,
Sadik Mariam,
Soest Brigit,
Knol Wilma,
Hunsel Florence,
RietNales Diana A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
british journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.216
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1365-2125
pISSN - 0306-5251
DOI - 10.1111/bcp.14392
Subject(s) - medicine , pharmacy , patient safety , product (mathematics) , medical emergency , family medicine , health care , geometry , mathematics , economics , economic growth
Aims Medication safety requires urgent attention in hospital pharmacy. This study evaluated the medication‐related problems/errors as reported to the Dutch medication incident registry and disseminated for information to pharmacists. Through analysis by an expert panel we aimed to better understand which problems could have been mitigated by the drug product design. Additionally, the (wider) implications of the problems for current hospital/clinical practice were discussed. Methods Items were extracted from the public Portal for Patient Safety. Items were included if relevant for older people and connected with the drug product design and excluded if they should reasonably have been intercepted by compliance to routine controls or well‐known professional standards in pharmaceutical care. To explore any underreporting of well‐known incidents, it was investigated if different medication‐related problems could be observed in a regional hospital practise over a 1‐month period. For 6 included items (cases), the implications for hospital/clinical practise were discussed in an expert panel. Results In total, 307 items were identified in the Portal for Patient Safety; all but 14 were excluded. Six cases were added from daily hospital practice. These 20 cases commonly related to confusing product characteristics, packaging issues such as the lack of a single unit package for an oncolytic product, or incorrect or incomplete user instructions. Conclusion Medication registries provide important opportunities to evaluate real‐world medication‐related problems. However, underreporting of well‐known problems should be considered. The product design can be used as an (additional) risk mitigation measure to support medication safety in hospital practice.

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