Activities at discharge: summary of potential process benefits studied
| Potential benefit | Results and references |
|---|---|
| Medication report (without quality assurance) reduces error rates in medication lists | The proportion of patients without an error (measured based on what patients really take) in the medication lists increased from 34% to 68%3 |
| Decreased risk of clinical consequences | The proportion of patients with a moderate or high risk of clinical consequences was reduced from 32% to 16%3 |
| Quality assured medication report in the LIMM discharge information decreases error rates further | The total number of errors decreased by 45% from 12.0 to 4.8 of medications. The proportion of patients without errors increased from 63% to 73%5 |
| The patient receives high quality discharge information written by physicians | Error rates in medication lists and medication reports decreased somewhat at the University Hospital wards during 1 year of follow-up but the number of patients who received the information was still low (31% and 27%)15 |
| Healthcare contacts after discharge decrease | The proportion of patients seeking care due to errors in medication lists decreased from 8.9% to 4.4%16 |
LIMM, Lund Integrated Medicines Management.