Drug safety in the doctor's office: Nearly half of patients have lapses in monit

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Drug safety in the doctor's office: Nearly half of patients have

lapses in monitoring

06 May 2005 Medical News Today

According to research published in the Journal of General Internal

Medicine, only slightly more than half of patients taking chronic

medications received the recommended laboratory tests to monitor drug

side effects.

Annual or more frequent lab testing is recommended in patients who

use certain medications on an ongoing basis so that drug

complications can be avoided. However, these tests to monitor the

safety of chronic medications are not performed as frequently as they

should be. Prior research has indicated that as many as 60% of

preventable drug complications were related to laboratory monitoring

errors.

This study examined almost 100,000 patients taking medications for

chronic illnesses over a period of three years to determine whether

they received the recommended laboratory tests to monitor potential

drug side effects. Nearly half of these patients (44-47% per year)

did not receive one or more recommended tests, though it is important

to note that the findings varied based on the type of drug,.

The researchers conclude that although lapses in drug safety

monitoring in the outpatient setting are common, further research is

needed to determine to what extent this failure to monitor results in

actual medical problems. Drug safety monitoring is an important care

issue that needs to be addressed by healthcare systems and

physicians, and in physician practice guidelines.

Individuals who are prescribed a chronic medication can be proactive

and ask their physicians what tests to monitor side effects are

needed and how often, then call their physician for a laboratory

referral when the time comes to be tested.

Judith Hurley, M.S., R.D., co-investigator and lead author, was a

Senior Research Associate at the Lovelace Respiratory Research

Institute at the time of the study. Floyd J. Frost, Ph.D., principal

investigator of the study, is a Senior Scientist at Lovelace

Respiratory Research Institute.