Summary of findings 1. Professional interventions compared to standard/usual care for prevention of medication errors.
| Professional interventions compared to standard/usual care for prevention of medication errors | ||||||
| Patient or population: adults receiving medication in primary care Setting: primary and community care Intervention: professional interventions (using health information technology to identify people at risk or using it to generate a patient care plan) Comparison: standard/usual care | ||||||
| Outcomes | Anticipated absolute effects* (95% CI) | Relative effect (95% CI) | № of participants (studies) | Certainty of the evidence (GRADE) | Comments | |
| Risk with standard/usual care | Risk with professional interventions | |||||
| Number of hospital admissions | Study population | RR 1.24 (0.79 to 1.96) | 3889 (2 RTs) | ⊕⊕⊕⊝ Moderate1 | The two studies had wide confidence intervals. | |
| 17 per 1000 | 21 per 1000 (13 to 33) | |||||
| Number of people admitted to hospital | Study population | RR 0.99 (0.92 to 1.06) | 3661 (1 RT) | ⊕⊕⊕⊕ High2 | ||
| 448 per 1000 | 443 per 1000 (412 to 475) | |||||
| Number of emergency department visits | Study population | RR 0.71 (0.50 to 1.02) | 1067 (2 RTs) | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ Low1,3 | The two studies had wide confidence intervals and selection bias. | |
| 118 per 1000 | 85 per 1000 (59 to 121) | |||||
| Mortality | Study population | RR 0.98 (0.82 to 1.17) | 3538 (1 RT) | ⊕⊕⊕⊝ Moderate3 | ||
| 122 per 1000 | 119 per 1000 (100 to 142) | |||||
| *The risk in the intervention group (and its 95% confidence interval) is based on the assumed risk in the comparison group and the relative effect of the intervention (and its 95% CI). CI: confidence interval; RR: risk ratio; RT: randomised trial | ||||||
| GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High‐certainty: we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect. Moderate‐certainty: we are moderately confident in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Low‐certainty: our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect. Very low‐certainty: we have very little confidence in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect. | ||||||
1We downgraded one level due to imprecision. 2We did not downgrade the outcomes because all included studies had low risk of bias and narrow confidence intervals. 3We downgraded one level due to risk of bias (selection bias).