Prevalence and Risk Factors for Medication Discrepancies on Hospital Discharge of Adult Diabetic Patients: A Prospective Single-center Cohort Study

SUMMARY. Patients diagnosed with diabetes admitted to the hospital are at risk of medication discrepancy and, consequently, medication errors (MEs). The objective was to explore the prevalence and type of medication discrepancies and their related factors at the time of hospital discharge of diabetic patients. Between February and April 2021, a prospective, single-center cohort sample of diabetic patients discharged from the King Khaled Hospital and Prince Sultan Center for Health Care was identified. Pre-admission and discharge medication lists for all patients were compared to detect any discrepancies, and all of these discrepancies were classified into intentional or unintentional. Patients’ characteristics were investigated concerning the occurrence of at least one unintentional discrepancy using regression analyses. Of the 116 patients, 37 (31.9%) had at least one unintentional medication discrepancy at hospital discharge. Medication omission was the most frequent type of discrepancy identified (38.9%), followed by discrepant dose and different drug, 20.1%, and 19.8%, respectively. Older patients diagnosed with DM between six and ten years ago, having more medicine pre-admission, with the increasing number of co-morbidities, with more extended hospitalization stays were most likely to experience unintentional medication discrepancy. At the same time, married and those who lived with family were at a lower risk of unintentional medication discrepancy. One-third of the studied patients had unintentional medication discrepancies at the hospital discharge. Several risk factors were detected in the study that should be focussed on developing effective strategies to reduce this to such vulnerable patients.