COMMENT
Medication review, discharge counseling, and telephone
follow-up by pharmacists were associated with a
significantly lower rate of preventable ADEs 30 days after
hospital discharge. Preventable, medication-related
ED visits and hospital readmissions were similarly reduced.
On the other hand, no differences were seen in
total ADEs, total health care utilization, medication adherence
or discrepancies, or patient satisfaction. On the
basis of the drug-related problems addressed by pharmacists
and the types of preventable ADEs seen among
control patients, the lower rate of preventable ADEs in
the intervention group may have been due to resolution
of medication discrepancies and improvement in medication
appropriateness before hospital discharge, and improved
access to medications after discharge.
Medication discrepancies (ie, differences between what
patients think they should be taking and regimens ordered
by physicians) were common during and after hospital
discharge. Discrepancies differ from problems of
medication adherence (ie, differences between what patients
think they should be taking and what they actually
take) because the problem is one of communication
and documentation rather than patient education or mo- tivation. Discrepancies have serious consequences, including
prolonged periods of overtreatment or undertreatment.
The problem has been demonstrated in recent
studies,9,15,27 including 2 of general medical inpatients
showing discrepancies on hospital admission in 53.6%
and 54.4% of patients,13,28 similar to our finding of discrepancies
in 49%. The magnitude of this problem is only
beginning to be appreciated and to receive attention from
health care agencies. The Joint Commission for Accreditation
of Healthcare Organizations is now mandating
medication reconciliation at the time of hospital admis- sion and discharge,29 although organizations are still struggling
with implementation issues.