title: Lessons from a patient partnership intervention to prevent adverse drug events.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient safety 'best practices' that call for patient participation to prevent adverse drug events have not been rigorously evaluated.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To consider lessons learned from a patient partnership intervention to prevent adverse drug events among medical in-patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective randomized, controlled pilot trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Boston teaching hospital. Patients. Two hundred and nine adult in-patients on a general medicine unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Intervention patients (n = 107) received drug safety information and their medication list; controls (n = 102) received drug safety information only. Measurements. Adverse drug events and close-call drug errors were identified using chart review and incident reports from nurses, pharmacists, and physicians. Patients and clinicians were surveyed about the intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 1053 patient-days at risk, 11 patients experienced 12 adverse drug events and 16 patients experienced 18 close calls. There was a non-significant difference between intervention patients and controls in survey responses and in the adverse drug event rate (8.4% versus 2.9%, P = 0.12) and close-call rate (7.5% versus 9.8%, P = 0.57). Eleven percent of patients were aware of drug-related mistakes during the hospitalization. Among nurse respondents, 29% indicated that at least one medication error was prevented when a patient or family member identified a problem.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Partnering with in-patients to prevent adverse drug events is a promising strategy but requires further study to document its efficacy.
authors.affiliation: Center for Patient Safety, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. saul_weingart@dfci.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Saul N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Weingart
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toth
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eneman
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Aronson
authors.forename: Daniel Z
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Sands
authors.forename: Amy N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Ship
authors.forename: Roger B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Russell S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D000368:Aged; D001900:Boston; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011446:Prospective Studies