References
Avoidance of drug errors between hospital and home

Ensing et al (2017) reported that there is a significant rise in emerging literature that highlights the increasing prevalence of medication discrepancies and adverse drug events on discharge from secondary care settings. They identified that the primary reasons for these deficits included the complexities of multiple healthcare professionals being involved in the patients' care; inadequate documentation; miscommunication and changes in medication regimes from home to hospital and vice versa. Furthermore, a systematic review of the literature, undertaken by Alqunae et al (2020) identified that care transition from hospital to community settings increases the risk of adverse outcomes for patients resulting from prescribing, dispensing and administration errors, failure to monitor and follow up the patient, and poor communication between practitioners, with some mistakes resulting in hospital readmission, serious harm or death.
Broadhead (2020) identified that transcribing medication regimens on discharge home or transfer to other care settings, accounts for a notable explanation for adverse drug errors and advises that transposing information should only be undertaken by those who are competent to do so. Thorough evaluation of current practice in prescribing, transcribing, dispensing and administration should be undertaken to assure health care practitioners' collective participation in meeting the aim to ‘reduce severe, avoidable harm related to medications by 50% in the next 5 years’ (World Health Organisation, 2017).
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