Failure to weigh patients in hospital: a medication safety risk |
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| Authors: | Hilmer S N Rangiah C Bajorek B V Shenfield G M |
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| Affiliation: | Departments of Clinical Pharmacology;and Aged Care and Rehabilitation, Royal North Shore Hospital;and Faculty of Medicine;, Faculty of Pharmacology;and Department of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Often patients are not weighed in hospital. Failure to weigh patients prescribed renally excreted drugs may correlate to adverse drug events. We carried out a cross-sectional study of patients prescribed common renally excreted drugs (heparin, enoxaparin and gentamicin), admitted to two wards at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney over 3 months. Of all patients surveyed, 28% (22/78) in the orthopaedic ward and 22% (27/124) in the medical ward were weighed. Among those prescribed therapeutic doses of the study drugs, 25% (3/12) in the orthopaedic ward and 27% (7/26) in the medical ward were weighed. Patients prescribed therapeutic anticoagulation who were not weighed experienced more haemorrhagic complications than patients who were weighed (P = 0.03). Patients prescribed renally excreted drugs in hospital are frequently not weighed. This is associated with reduced medication safety. |
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| Keywords: | medication safety patient weight creatinine clearance quality use of medicines enoxaparin gentamicin |
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