gms | German Medical Science

Background: Outpatient care services provide for elderly people in need for care. Multimorbidity associated with higher age often requires multimedication with more than five drugs [1], which is related to an increased risk for side effects [2], [1], [3]. The outpatient care services play an important role in the medication process by preparing medication and monitoring therapy.

Materials and methods: A voluntary survey based on a given questionnaire was conducted among care managers of outpatient care services from March 01, 2017 to April 30, 2019. In some cases, medicines in stock were examined, especially from a pharmaceutical perspective. Excel 2010 was used for the evaluation in the LZG; outpatient care services remained anonymous for the LZG.

Results: Drugs were stored in 76% of the 104 examined outpatient care services. Drug preparation errors were found in more than 50% of the inspected boxes and pillboxes. Less than 35% of outpatient care services conduct regular meetings with doctors’ practices or pharmacies. In 41 of the 104 outpatient care services, the investigators had the impression that therapy monitoring is taken seriously and a very important or important remit.

Conclusion: Analogous to existing studies, there were evidence for problems in quality and communication as well as impairment of therapy monitoring in outpatient care services – especially from a pharmaceutical perspective. Particularly storage, transport and patient-specific drug preparation could be considered as sources of error. Due to the voluntary principle, it cannot be excluded that further deficiencies would become visible in a representative study.

The handling of pharmaceuticals, therapy monitoring and the cooperation of outpatient care services with other health professions, especially with pharmacists should be improved. In the future, representative studies of medication processes in outpatient care should be conducted.