Incidence, severity and preventability of medication-related visits to the emergency department: a prospective study.

Background: Medication-related visits to the emergency department are an important but poorly understood phenomenon. We sought to evaluate the frequency, severity and preventability of drug-related visits to the emergency department.

Methods: We performed a prospective observational study of randomly selected adults presenting to the emergency department over a 12-week period.

Drug-related hospitalizations in a tertiary care internal medicine service of a Canadian hospital: a prospective study.

Study Objectives: To determine the frequency, severity, preventability, and classification of adverse drug events resulting in hospitalization, and to identify any patient, prescriber, drug, and system factors associated with these events.

Design: Prospective, observational study.

Setting: Internal medicine service of a large tertiary care hospital in Canada.