Medication safety incidents associated with the remote delivery of primary care: a rapid review
Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered rapid, fundamental changes, notably increased remote delivery of primary care. While the impact of these changes on medication safety is not yet fully understood, research conducted before the pandemic may provide evidence for possible consequences. To examine the published literature on medication safety incidents associated with the remote delivery of primary care, with a focus on telemedicine and electronic prescribing.
Methods: A rapid review was conducted according to the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group guidance. An electronic search was carried out on Embase and Medline (via PubMed) using key search terms 'medication error', 'electronic prescribing', 'telemedicine' and 'primary care'. Identified studies were synthesised narratively; reported medication safety incidents were categorised according to the WHO Conceptual Framework for the International Classification for Patient Safety.
Key findings: Fifteen studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. All 15 studies reported medication incidents associated with electronic prescribing; no studies were identified that reported medication safety incidents associated with telemedicine. The most commonly reported medication safety incidents were 'wrong label/instruction' and 'wrong dose/strength/frequency'. The frequency of medication safety incidents ranged from 0.89 to 81.98 incidents per 100 electronic prescriptions analysed.
Summary: This review of medication safety incidents associated with the remote delivery of primary care identified common incident types associated with electronic prescriptions. There was a wide variation in reported frequencies of medication safety incidents associated with electronic prescriptions. Further research is required to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medication safety in primary care, particularly the increased use of telemedicine.
Funding
This study was funded by the Health Research Board (Ireland) via the CONNECTS project grant (RCSPS-2020-032)
History
Comments
The original article is available at https://academic.oup.com/ Pre-print is available on medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.19.22275325 and RCSI Repository https://hdl.handle.net/10779/rcsi.25219004.v1Published Citation
Gleeson LL. et al. Medication safety incidents associated with the remote delivery of primary care: a rapid review. Int J Pharm Pract. 2022;30(6):495-506.Publication Date
3 January 2023External DOI
PubMed ID
36595375Department/Unit
- Chemistry
- General Practice
- Health Psychology
- Library
- School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
- School of Population Health
Publisher
Oxford University PressVersion
- Published Version (Version of Record)