03
November
2015
|
23:30
Europe/London

Study highlights risks of prescribing or monitoring errors in UK general practice

  • One in 100 patients are at risk of receiving an inappropriate prescription
  • Older patients and those receiving multiple repeat prescriptions were at highest risk
Pills

Around one in 100 patients in a study of over 500 UK general practices are at risk of receiving an inappropriate prescription and around one in 250 have no record of monitoring within the recommended time period, finds a study in The BMJ this week.

Older patients and those receiving multiple repeat prescriptions were at highest risk, the findings show.

The results “emphasise the need to give due consideration to the risks of prescribing multiple drugs and the importance of regular drug reviews, especially for patients with multiple conditions,” say the researchers.

Prescribing errors in primary care can cause considerable harm, with adverse drug events accounting for around 7% of hospital admissions in the UK, and half of these are judged to be preventable.

Prescribing safety indicators have been developed to identify patients at increased risk of hazardous prescribing, but they have not yet been assessed in general practices from across the UK.

So a team of researchers, led by Jill Stocks at The University of Manchester, used anonymised patient data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to investigate the prevalence and predictors of prescribing safety indicators in UK general practice.

Potential of risk

Their findings are based on about one million adult patients registered with 526 general practices across the UK who were potentially at risk of a prescribing or monitoring error.

Around 5% of patients at risk triggered at least one prescribing indicator and almost 12% triggered at least one monitoring indicator.

Older patients and those prescribed multiple repeat drugs had significantly higher risks of triggering a prescribing indicator, whereas younger patients with fewer repeat prescriptions had significantly higher risk of triggering a monitoring indicator.

There was also high variation between practices for some indicators.

The researchers stress that, although prescribing safety indicators describe prescribing patterns that can increase the risk of harm to the patient and should generally be avoided, there will always be exceptions where the indicator is clinically justified.

Nevertheless, they say the high prevalence for certain indicators “emphasises existing prescribing risks and the need for appropriate consideration within primary care, particularly for older patients and those taking multiple drugs.”

The high variation between practices for some indicators also suggests potential for improvement through targeted practice level intervention, they add.

The paper, ‘Examining variations in prescribing safety in UK general practice: cross sectional study using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink’ (PDF) appeared in the BMJ. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.h5501

 

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Greater Manchester Primary Care Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.

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