Routine drug audits save patients

All big hospitals may start automatic screening of medicinal history on admission

The Hospital Authority may introduce a new drugs safety programme at all its major hospitals after a pilot scheme at Queen Mary Hospital was deemed a success.

It says the 'medication reconciliation service' has helped prevent more than 200 potential drug incidents and saved 250 doctors' working hours in four months.

Under the system, a full-time clinical pharmacist is placed at the hospital's busy admission wards to check patients' drug records and make sure there is no omission or duplication of medicines on their admission, transfer or discharge.

The Hospital Authority's co-ordinating committee on pharmacy has proposed that the project be implemented in the major hospitals of all the authority's seven clusters in 2009/10.

Queen Mary Hospital chief pharmacist William Chui Chun-ming said a common medication error was that patients failed to continue medication they were taking before they were admitted to hospital. In some cases, patients took duplicate drugs.

A clinical pharmacist has been working in Queen Mary's admission ward since March to help doctors with prescriptions. Apart from checking patients' drug records, the pharmacist interviews families or health care staff at homes for the elderly and checks drug records with private doctors. The pharmacist also contacts doctors at different outpatient clinics to avoid duplication of medicine.