Outpatient Prescription Errors: Detection, Analysis, and Impact on Safety

December 14, 2011 updated by: Amanda Kennedy, University of Vermont
The purpose of this study is to better understand outpatient prescribing errors through clinic and pharmacy-based error reporting systems.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Medication errors cause substantial morbidity and mortality in the United States. However, relatively little is known about medication errors in the outpatient setting. The broad goal of this proposal is to improve outpatient safety. Specifically, this research plan promotes the understanding of the causes of outpatient prescription errors. The specific aims of this project are:

  1. To develop and evaluate a novel reporting system in physicians' offices for detecting prescription errors
  2. To develop and evaluate a novel improvement system in community pharmacies to increase prescription error reporting by pharmacists
  3. To analyze reports of outpatient prescription errors and understand their root causes

To achieve these specific aims, statewide research will be conducted utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods including root cause analysis, failure mode and effects analysis, and surveys. This research plan will promote patient safety by furthering the understanding of the causes of outpatient prescription errors in all outpatient populations, including rural, women, children, elderly, low income, and the chronically ill.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

103

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Vermont
      • Burlington, Vermont, United States, 05401
        • University of Vermont, Division of General Internal Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Primary Care Practices

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Employed in a physician's office or community pharmacy

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not employed in a physician's office or community pharmacy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Primary Care Practices
One hundred and three prescribers, managers, nurses and office staff at seven primary care practices in Vermont
Behavioral: reporting system
Nurses and office staff were asked to report all communications with community pharmacists regarding prescription problems

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Vermont

Collaborators

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Amanda G Kennedy, PharmD, University of Vermont

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2003

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 17, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 17, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

November 21, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 15, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 14, 2011

Last Verified

December 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • K08HS013891 (U.S. AHRQ Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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