Variation in medication information for elderly patients during initial interventions by emergency department physicians.

Purpose: Discrepancies between medication information received from elderly patients in the emergency department (ED) at the time of initial diagnosis or therapeutic intervention and information collected by pharmacists from outside caregivers (pharmacies and physicians) were studied. The time from patient arrival at the ED to initial intervention was also studied.

Methods: Written and oral medication histories of ED patients 65 years and older who were seen at an urban academic hospital between June 2003 and May 2004 were collected and represented information available at the time of initial diagnosis and treatment.