Barton, L.Futtermenger, J.Gaddi, Y.Kang, A.Rivers, J.Spriggs, D.Jenkins, P.Thompson, C.Thomas, J.2012-09-042012-09-042012Clinical Medicine, 2012; 12(2):119-1231470-21181473-4893http://hdl.handle.net/2440/72993This study aimed to quantify and compare the prevalence of simple prescribing errors made by clinicians in the first 24 hours of a general medical patient's hospital admission. Four public or private acute care hospitals across Australia and New Zealand each audited 200 patients' drug charts. Patient demographics, pharmacist review and pre-defined prescribing errors were recorded. At least one simple error was present on the medication charts of 672/715 patients, with a linear relationship between the number of medications prescribed and the number of errors (r=0.571, p<0.001). The four sites differed significantly in the prevalence of different types of simple prescribing errors. Pharmacists were more likely to review patients aged >75 years (39.9% vs 26.0%; p<0.001) and those with more than 10 drug prescriptions (39.4% vs 25.7%; p<0.001). Patients reviewed by a pharmacist were less likely to have inadequate documentation of allergies (13.5% vs 29.4%, p<0.001). Simple prescribing errors are common, although their nature differs from site to site. Clinical pharmacists target patients with the most complex health situations, and their involvement leads to improved documentation.en© 2012 Royal College of Physiciansclinical pharmacistmedication chartprescription errorJournal article002011846410.7861/clinmedicine.12-2-1190003028450000072-s2.0-8486258402424838Thompson, C. [0000-0002-5164-3327]Thomas, J. [0000-0001-8124-5920]