The pharmacist also ensures that information on medication changed, started and stopped is documented. PTTAs are

currently not screened by a second pharmacist but should be checked by the doctor. Anecdotal evidence is that this does not happen routinely. 80% of all weekday discharge medication lists are PTTAs. This study aimed to assess a representative sample of PTTAs for safety (error rate) and quality of documentation. This was a retrospective study. Data collection took place on single days during seven convenient, non-consecutive weeks between October 2013 and January 2014. Stratified sampling (proportionate allocation) was used to ensure appropriate representation of all clinical specialties. The data collection tool was based on a previous similar study (Linda Dodds, click here personal communication, RG7204 2013), piloted by pre-registration pharmacists and pilot data validated by a senior clinical pharmacist. Pre-registration pharmacists collected final versions of PTTAs written a week before the data collection day and documented the specialty, the medicines from the drug history, inpatient chart and the PTTA. They noted any differences between the three lists and the documentation of such. Senior clinical pharmacists assessed the

discrepancies between the lists to determine intentional and unintentional changes, and the quality of documentation. Ethics approval was not needed as this was a service evaluation. Data was entered into MS Excel for analysis. Four hundred twenty-eight PTTAs were reviewed. All could be assessed for errors. Errors were found for 12/428 patients. (2.8%, 95% CI 1.3%–4.3%). Sixty-nine PTTAs were not evaluated for documentation of changes. Fifty-four PTTAs from the Women’s and Children’s wards did not have this information available at the time of data collection. Fifteen

patients had no changes to their medication. 272/359 (75.8%, 95% CI 71.5–81.3%) patients were discharged with all relevant information regarding medication changes documented in the DN. The most serious error was in a surgical patient who was taking a high dose of oral morphine sulphate plus tramadol daily before discharge but was discharged without a strong opiate. Other errors included an incident of therapeutic duplication (antibiotics) and analgesics and anti-emetics Sulfite dehydrogenase missing from PTTAs despite being taken regularly just before discharge. Two point four per cent error rate on pharmacist-written discharge medication lists is remarkably low compared to the literature for traditional DNs. Additionally, 76% of DNs had complete information regarding medications initiated and stopped. Dodds showed that two-thirds of doctor-written discharge summaries were inaccurate prior to a pharmacy check.1 Our PTTAs can be improved further as not providing information on medication changes to primary care and community colleagues can give rise to errors and adverse events after discharge.