Introduction

Prescribing errors (PEs) resulting from inappropriate decision making or writing process (1) can lead to medication-related morbidity and mortality, placing pressure on healthcare services and incurring substantial healthcare costs (2). Preventing or reducing the number of PEs is recognized as a priority for improving in-hospital medication safety, for example by institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO) (2, 3). Timely and structured evaluation of a patient’s medication list and use is crucial for reducing medication-related patient harm. While medication reviews has been shown to prevent hospital readmission (4, 5) and decrease drug-related problems (6), they are labour- and time-intensive and require the involvement of a competent ‘reviewer’, other involved healthcare professionals, and the patient. It would therefore be efficient to prioritise patients who would benefit from a medication review. By identifying patients at risk, healthcare professionals can allocate resources and interventions more efficiently, targeting those who are more likely to experience medication-related harm.
Patient factors, such as advanced age and impaired renal function, have been identified as risk factors for PEs, as have setting-related factors (admittance to specific clinical wards or treated by specific medical specialties) and medication-related factors (use of specific medications or medication groups, e.g., non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, methotrexate, and opioids) (7-16). Some of these stand-alone risk factors have been combined into tools to predict or stratify patients at risk of medication-related harm due to PEs (14, 17), but none of the currently available prediction tools are optimal for this purpose (18). In this study, we aimed to determine whether doctors can effectively identify patients at risk of PEs and therefore at risk of medication-related harm. To this end, a multidisciplinary in-hospital pharmacotherapeutic stewardship (IPS) team assessed the prevalence of PEs in patients on three hospital wards.