An intervention to encourage ambulance paramedics to bring patients' own medications to the ED: Impact on medications brought in and prescribing errors

Objective: To undertake and evaluate a multifaceted intervention to encourage paramedics to bring patients' own medications (POM) to the ED. Method: Adult patients were enrolled in each of the pre-intervention (March 2006) and post-intervention (December 2006) periods if they were brought to ED by ambulance, taking four or more medications, admitted to hospital and were not referred to a pharmacist prior to the admission medication chart being written. ED pharmacists determined patients' regular medication and details of medications brought in by ambulance. Medication charts were assessed for discrepancies related to medications taken prior to presentation. These were recorded as errors if a change was made to the medication chart after discussion with the prescriber. The intervention, conducted in October and November 2006, involved meetings with Metropolitan Ambulance Service* team managers and dissemination of promotional material. Paramedics of the Metropolitan Ambulance Service were participants for the intervention. Main outcome measures were: percentage of regular medications incorrectly prescribed; and percentage of POM brought to ED by paramedics. Results: One hundred patients were enrolled in each of the pre- and post-intervention periods. The percentage of regular medications incorrectly prescribed significantly decreased from 18.9% (151/800, 95% CI 16-22%) to 8.8% (73/834, 95% CI 7-11%) in the pre- and post-intervention periods, respectively (P < 0.001). Pre-intervention, paramedics brought some or all POM to ED in 67.0% (67/100, 95% CI 57-76%) of cases compared with 87.0% (87/100, 95% CI 78-93%) of cases, post-intervention. Conclusion: The multifaceted intervention encouraging paramedics to bring POM to ED was effective. POM were brought into ED more frequently and prescribing errors reduced.