Letters
Pharmacists and computerised prescribing can help
EDITOR,--R E Ferner asks a pertinent question regarding what can be done in hospitals to prevent drug errors and provides some potential answers, including that prescriptions should be checked by pharmacists.1 This is common in hospitals in the NHS. A survey in mid-1992 found that pharmacists in 96% of NHS hospitals monitored prescriptions on the wards, usually daily on weekdays.2 Research in Britain shows that hospital pharmacists detect and prevent many errors in prescribing. Hawkey et al showed that quality of care improved in most cases when doctors were asked to reconsider prescriptions that ward pharmacists considered to be incorrect.3 A review of British literature shows that many similar studies support these results.4 Evidence also exists that hosptial doctors, nurses, and managers value the safety net provided by pharmacies.5
Such monitoring cannot guarantee the quality of prescribing, not least because pharmacists may also fail to detect errors and may not
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- Is there a cure for drug errors?
- R E Ferner
BMJ 1995 311: 463-464.[Extract] [Full Text]
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