About
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Cedars-Sinal Medical Center
Project Title: Minimizing Errors in Medication Histories Obtained at Hospital Admission
Mentors:
Douglas Bell, MD, PhD – UCLA
Cynthia Jackevicius, PharmD, MSc – VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
Andre Rogatko, PhD – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Rita Shane, PharmD – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Multidisciplinary Expertise:
Health services research, clinical informatics, hospital medicine, clinical trials, medication management
Project description:
Dr. Pevnick will study three interventions to improve the accuracy of medication histories obtained at hospital admission. The interventions will target elderly and chronically ill patients prone to erroneous medication histories and resultant medication errors. For targeted patients, Dr. Pevnick will test the effect of using pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to obtain an initial medication history. He will also study the potential benefit of accessing electronic claims data at the time of admission to improve medication history accuracy. This project holds promise for understanding how best to apply three promising, emerging interventions to improve medication history accuracy. Improving the accuracy of admission medication histories is accepted as a necessary first step in preventing adverse drug events, which cause over 100,000 deaths in hospitalized patients annually. Beyond studying potential solutions to this public health threat, the proposed research will help to develop Dr. Pevnick into an independent investigator.