Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Patients Taking Their Own Medications While in the Hospital

Pennsylvania facilities submitted 879 medication error reports from July 1, 2004, through January 31, 2011, to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority involving patients taking their own medications while in a hospital. Categorization of the reports by harm score shows that 77.7% of the events reached the patient and 2.1% of the events resulted in patient harm. Almost 300 different medications were mentioned in the reports, and 18.7% of the reports revealed that patients took multiple medications. One or more controlled substances were involved in 40.3% of the events, and more than 25% of the reports mentioned a medication considered to be a high-alert medication. Employing strategies to prevent harm from patients taking their own medications can be prioritized by proactively assessing the risk associated with patients bringing in their own medications, developing a screening process for patients admitted to the facility who have a previous history of bringing in their own medications, and providing patient and family education upon admission to the facility about the facility’s policies in regard to patients’ use of their own medications.