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DTB Commentary
Discharging doctors do not reliably predict risk of medication-related harm
    1. Correspondence to Dr Teck K Khong; tkhong{at}sgul.ac.uk

    https://doi.org/10.1136/dtb.2019.000037

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      Commentary on: Parekh N, et al. Can doctors identify older patients at risk of medication harm following hospital discharge? A multicentre prospective study in the UK. BJCP 2018;84:2344–51.

      Commentary by: Dr Christopher JD Threapleton and Dr Teck Khong, Clinical Pharmacology, St George's, University of London, London, UK

      Series Editor: Dr Teck Khong, DTB Associate Editor, Clinical Pharmacology, St George's, University of London, London, UK

      Key learning points

      • Thirty per cent of inpatients aged 65 years and older experienced medication-related harm (MRH) that required a healthcare intervention within 8 weeks of discharge.

      • Discharging doctors did not reliably predict the likelihood of MRH.

      • Confidence and not seniority was associated with increased accuracy in predicting MRH.

      Summary

      Discharging doctors could not reliably predict the likelihood of medication-related harm (MRH) in older patients.1

      Study details

      This multicentre prospective cohort study investigated 1280 inpatients aged 65 years and older at or near discharge from five teaching hospitals in southern England between September 2013 and November 2015.1 Patients with terminal illness, deemed to lack capacity with no nominated consultee or transferred to another acute medical setting were excluded. Doctors arranging the patients’ discharge completed a questionnaire to ascertain their prediction of whether patients would …

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      Footnotes

      • Competing interests None declared. Refer to the online supplementary files to view the ICMJE form(s).

      • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.