Identifying rates and risk factors for medication errors during hospitalization in the Australian Parkinson's disease population: A 3-year, multi-center study.

Background: Admission to hospital introduces risks for people with Parkinson's disease in maintaining continuity of their highly individualized medication regimens, which increases their risk of medication errors. This is of particular concern as omitted medications and irregular dosing can cause an immediate increase in an individual's symptoms as well as other adverse outcomes such as swallowing difficulties, aspiration pneumonia, frozen gait and even potentially fatal neuroleptic malignant type syndrome.

Objective: To determine the occurrence and identify factors that contribute to Parkinson's medication errors in Australian hospitals.