The national inpatient medication chart: critical audit of design and performance at a tertiary hospital.

Objective: To compare the national inpatient medication chart (NIMC) with the chart previously used at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) in Western Australia, and with charts used at 13 other hospitals across Australia; and to audit NIMC performance in practice and to assess its design characteristics.

Design: Audit of patient prescribing documents extended to include a comparison with aggregated pilot study data and the previous RPH chart. Assessment of design features by inspection, based on their likely effect on medication safety.