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Are medication record cards useful?
Author(s) -
Atkin Philip A,
Finnegan Terrence P,
Ogle Susan J,
Shenfield Gillian M
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1995.tb139904.x
Subject(s) - medicine , medical record , data collection , emergency medicine , medical emergency , surgery , statistics , mathematics
Objective: To assess the use of patient‐held medication record cards and their acceptability to patients and doctors. Design: Prospective 12‐month study with data collection at baseline and on three subsequent occasions at four‐monthly intervals. Patients and setting: 187 patients with a mean age of 78.4 years (range, 60–101) were taking a mean of 5.8 medications each (range, 1–18). They lived on Sydney's lower north shore and were able to care for themselves. Main outcome measures: Availability of card on request, frequency of use, status of recorders and accuracy of records (checked by inspection of medications at home). Results: Most patients retained their cards, but the proportion who presented it to their doctor fell from 61% to 23% over the 12 months ( P < 0.0001), and the proportion with accurately recorded drug regimens ranged from 20% down to 16%. Of the 75 regimens written exclusively by general practitioners in the 12 months, only 19 (25%) were consistent with what the patients were actually taking. Conclusion: Medication record cards introduced into the doctor‐patient relationship by a “third‐party” are unlikely to result in better quality use of medicines.