Medication list assessment in Spanish hospital emergency departments.

Background: Medication errors lead to morbidity and mortality among emergency department (ED) patients. An inaccurate medication history is one of the underlying causes of these errors.

Objectives: This study was performed to determine the prevalence of patients with discrepancies between the medical list information contained in the clinical history compiled on admission to the ED and the list of medications patients are actually taking, to characterize the discrepancies found, and to analyze whether certain factors are associated with the risk of discrepancies.