[Medicines reconciliation at hospital admission into an electronic prescribing program]. / Conciliación de medicación al ingreso mediante un programa de prescripción electrónica asistida.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and to analyse a new method of integrated medicines reconciliation in an electronic prescribing program results. METHOD: 12-month, prospective, observational, non-randomized and uncontrolled study, in which all patients who were admitted, during that year, to a general hospital of 450 beds. The electronic prescribing program was used for medication reconciliation as a means to multidisciplinary approach (nurses, doctors, pharmacists). This reconciliation was done at the time of hospital admission and reconciliation errors were measured. RESULTS: A total of 23 701 patients were included, with 53 920 medications being reconciled, of which 48 744 (90.4%) had no discrepancies and 5 176 (9.6%) had discrepancies: 4 731 (8.7%) justified and 445 (0.8%) not justified. The majority of unjustified discrepancies were due to the drugs in use at home not recorded well on the hospital admission record in 310 (69.7%), prescription omissions in 105 (23.6%) and duplications in 30 (6.7%). In any case the reconciliation errors reached patients. CONCLUSIONS: Using an electronic prescribing program and an interdisciplinary approach in the reconciliation of chronic medication, medication reconciliation at the time of hospital admission is achieved in 98% of patients, showing medication errors only in 1.3% of patients.

Objetivo: Describir y analizar los resultados obtenidos durante un año con un nuevo procedimiento de conciliación de la medicación al ingreso hospitalario basado en un programa de prescripción electrónica asistida. Método: Estudio observacional, prospectivo, no aleatorizado y no controlado de 12 meses de duración, en el que se incluyeron todos los pacientes que ingresaron, durante ese año, en un hospital general concertado de 450 camas. Para la conciliación de la medicación se utilizó el programa de prescripción electrónica como medio para el abordaje multidisciplinar (enfermería, médicos y farmacéuticos). La conciliación se realizó al ingreso hospitalario y se midieron los errores de conciliación. Resultados: Se incluyeron 23.701 pacientes, conciliándose 53.920 medicamentos, de los cuales no tenían discrepancias 48.744 (90,4%) y 5.176 (9,6%) presentaban discrepancias: 4.731 (8,8 % de los fármacos) justificadas y 445 (0,8% de los fármacos) no justificadas. La mayor parte de las discrepancias no justificadas, (n = 310; 69,7%) se debieron a errores en el registro de la medicación domiciliaria al ingreso: medicación no registrada o errores de medicamentos, dosis, frecuencia o vía de administración, omisiones de prescripción, 23,6% (n = 105) y duplicidades, 6,7% (n = 30). En ningún caso el error de conciliación llegó al paciente. Conclusiones: Mediante las ayudas informáticas incluidas en el programa de prescripción electrónica asistida y el abordaje multidisciplinar del proceso de conciliación se consigue realizar la conciliación de la medicación al ingreso en el 98% de los pacientes en el momento del ingreso, evidenciando errores de conciliación solo en el 1,3% de los pacientes.

[Epidemiological study of acute poisoning cases treated at a Galician hospital between 2005 and 2008]. / Estudio epidemiológico de las intoxicaciones agudas atendidas en un hospital gallego entre 2005 y 2008.

A descriptive retrospective study of acute intoxication cases registered at the Complexo Hospitalario de Pontevedra (CHOP) between January 2005 and December 2008 was performed to find out the number and types of poisoning cases treated, their distribution according to patient's sex and age, chronology, type of toxic agents involved, intentionality, history, symptoms, clinical development, treatment and toxicological analysis used for diagnosis. Data were recorded using Clinica and IANUS software and consulting all paper records of patients with symptoms of poisoning. Data from a total of 1893 patients with a mean age of 35.6 ± 17.6 years (66% men) were included. Highest rates of poisoning were recorded on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer months (June, July and August). Drugs of abuse were the most common toxic agents (70.4%), ethyl alcohol accounting for 61% of these cases, which often involved males and with people with high degrees of dependency. In second place was poisoning resulting from the abuse of medical drugs, more commonly associated with females, and involving benzodiazepines in 73.2% of cases. The majority of these intoxications were intentional, and suicide attempts accounted for 18.8%. The problems most commonly resulting from the poisoning were neurological, and mortality rate was just 0.2%.