Development and validation of criteria to identify medication-monitoring errors in care home residents

Abstract Aim The identification of medication-monitoring errors requires a validated definition. This paper describes the development and validation of a definition which includes criteria for specific medicines to determine whether a medication-monitoring error has occurred in the care home setting. Setting Criteria were developed for older people (aged 65 years or older) living in care homes. Methods Criteria were developed by two clinical pharmacists using published guidelines. The criteria were divided into those relating to initiation of therapy and maintenance monitoring. The study steering group, made up of clinical pharmacists, a general practitioner (GP) and pharmacy academics, then reviewed the criteria and a consensus was achieved. The criteria were then reviewed by a sample of 21 GPs and 11 clinical pharmacists. The threshold for acceptance for each criterion was set at 70% by agreement of all participants. Key findings The definition of a medication-monitoring error was accepted as ‘when a prescribed medicine is not monitored in the way which would be considered acceptable in routine general practice. It includes the absence of tests being carried out at the frequency listed in the criteria for each medicine, with tolerance of +50%’. Seventy per cent agreement was reached on all criteria for the initiation of therapy, except warfarin (69%), and on all criteria for maintenance monitoring, except penicillamine (63%) and potassium (63%). Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study to define a medication-monitoring error, and to determine and validate specific criteria to identify such errors in older people living in care homes.