Seminar CL1 – Medication Safety in transitions of care

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-15-016-L05-P. A knowledge based activity. 

Increasing evidence shows that medication related problems are common at interfaces of care and may pose a significant patient safety risk. A considerable proportion of hospital admissions are caused by adverse drug reactions, which require early identification and management in hospital. Additionally, there is international evidence demonstrating that 40-50% of patients experience unintentional medication discrepancies upon admission to and discharge from acute care hospitals. Many of these discrepancies can be significant and may lead to medication errors which in turn may result in adverse drug events, or other drug therapy problems, resulting in preventable harm and possibly re-hospitalisation.

During this seminar we will focus on strategies to maintain and optimise patient safety at transitions of care. This will include identifying common issues that contribute to poor outcomes as well as on identifying risk factors for drug related harm, effective medication management at interfaces and potential roles for pharmacists in transitions of care. Medication reconciliation, collaborative pharmaceutical care and patient engagement will be introduced as some of the tools to improve transitions of care. The organisational challenges to implementing such tools in practice will also be introduced.