Quality of electronic records documenting adverse drug reactions within a hospital setting: identification of discrepancies and information completeness.

Aim: Incomplete and incorrect documentation of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) can restrict prescribing choices resulting in suboptimal pharmaceutical care. This study aimed to examine the quality of information held within electronic systems in a hospital setting, to determine the preciseness of ADR documentation, and identify discrepancies where multiple electronic systems are utilised.

Method: Over a four-week period, consecutive patients admitted to the general medical ward at the study hospital had their electronic profiles reviewed. Patient demographic information (de-identified), ADR history and discrepancies between information sources (as recorded in all electronic systems utilised at initial prescribing) were recorded and analysed.

Results: Over the four-week period, 332 patient profiles were reviewed, and over 1,200 alerts were identified and analysed (including duplicates of ADR reactions). Of these patients, 151 (45.5%) had at least one documented allergy or intolerance which generated 585 reactions, relating to 526 unique events. A further 151 (45.5%) were classified as having no known (drug) allergies or intolerances; however, 20 (15%) of these patients did have at least one allergy documented in at least one other electronic system. The remaining 30 (9%) patients were classified as having an unknown allergy status and of those nine had allergies documented in at least one other electronic system. Further, most systems contained information duplication, which had not been addressed during the admission process.

Conclusion: ADR information was both imprecise and inaccurate, as multiple discrepancies between ADR information recorded in different electronic patient management systems were found to exist. Information sharing between systems needs to be prioritised in order to allow full, accurate and complete ADR information to be collected, stored and utilised; both to reduce current inadequacies and to allow optimal pharmaceutical care.