An evaluation of pharmacist-written hospital discharge prescriptions on general surgical wards

Abstract Objective To evaluate the quality of pharmacist-written hospital discharge prescriptions (DPs) in comparison to those written by doctors. Method The study was carried out in two, week-long phases on the general surgical wards in one UK hospital. In phase 1, doctors wrote the DPs, which were then checked by the ward pharmacist. In phase 2, ward pharmacists wrote the DPs which were then checked by the patient's junior doctor. In both phases, the clinical dispensary pharmacist made their routine check of the prescription prior to dispensing. All interventions were recorded on a pre-piloted data collection form. Key findings In phase 1, doctors wrote 128 DPs; in phase 2, pharmacists wrote 133 DPs. There were 755 interventions recorded during phase 1 in comparison to 76 during phase 2. In phase 1, transcription errors accounted for 118 interventions, 149 were due to ambiguity/illegibility; 488 amendments were to facilitate the dispensing process e.g. clarification of patient, medical and drug details, and dosage form discrepancies. In phase 2, transcription errors accounted for one intervention, 50 interventions were due to ambiguities or illegibility; 25 amendments were to facilitate the dispensing process. During phase 2, doctors made 10 minor alterations to pharmacist-written DPs. On 52 occasions during phase 2, the ward pharmacist had to clarify, prior to writing the DP, either the dose of a drug, or, whether a drug should be continued on discharge, and if so, for what duration. Conclusion Pharmacist-written DPs contained considerably fewer errors, omissions and unclear information in comparison to doctor-written DPs. Doctors recorded no significant alterations when validating pharmacist-written DPs.