Poor drug history documentation in admission medical notes: clerking prompts and junior doctor education alone do not significantly reduce errors.

Introduction: Poor drug history documentation on admission may lead to medication errors; a leading cause of avoidable harm.

Aims: To assess the quality of drug histories in the notes of patients admitted to an emergency assessment unit and impact of interventions to improve documentation.

Methods: Data were collected on the accuracy of documentation in 281 drug histories including errors of omission, frequency and dose.