In this study of patients treated in hospital for acute myocardial infarction, the prescribing rates at discharge for the 4 classes of medications were higher than established bench­mark values. One-third to one-half of the patients were already receiving one or more of the medications of interest at admission. This finding is clinically significant, as improvements [...]

Patient Characteristics Medical records for a total of 346 patients were reviewed. The mean age (± SD) of patients was 65.3 ± 13.4 years, andalmost two-thirds (226 [65.3%]) were male (Table 2). Before admission, approximately half of the patients had dyslipidemia (181 [52.3%]) or hypertension (197 [56.9%]), and almost one-third (100 [28.9%]) had a history [...]

This retrospective study involved patients discharged from 2 adult acute care sites of Eastern Health. At the time of the study, the 2 sites had a total of about 550 acute care beds, and each contained a coronary care unit. One of these sites housed the cardiac catheterization laboratory and the cardiac surgery program for [...]

INTRODUCTION Over the past 20 years, treatment of acute myocardial infarction has improved through more rapid recognition of symptoms, treatment with fibrin-specific thrombolytics and percutaneous coronary intervention, and clinical trials that have demonstrated reductions in morbidity and mortality with appropriate acute treatment and secondary prevention. Specifically, evidence now supports the use of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), [...]

I’ve spent a lot of time addressing the accuracy of the initial medication list in the context of what patients (or their family or friends) remember. I certainly cannot argue about the importance of ensuring that medication orders, written anew for each setting of the hospital, are scrupulously checked to verify that a medication has [...]

Few would dispute the fact that many patients do not fill their prescriptions and many do not take medications as prescribed. Indeed, I have always suspected that most patients, when asked about their current medications, remember the drugs they actually take, or at least what problem those drugs are intended to treat, but generally do [...]

I hate to be a spoiler, especially amidst all the deafening applause, but I must ask: Just how reasonable is it to expect that most, or even many, patients (or their friends and family) will produce an updated and accurate medication form (much less schlep it around with them)?