Table 2.

Reasons for omissions of high-risk medicines on medical and surgical wards

	Patient’s ward speciality
	Medical								Surgical
	Anti- infectives		Insulin		Opioids		Anticoagulants		Anti-infectives		Insulin		Opioids		Anticoagulants
	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))	n	n/PO (%(95% CI))
Reasons for omissions of each drug group
Valid clinical reasons	25	25 (16 to 33)	13	52 (0.31 to 0.73)	5	17 (0.03 to 0.32)	74	56 (0.48 to 0.65)	11	25 (12 to 38)	3	23 (0 to 50)	15	27 (15 to 39)	40	58 (46 to 70)
Outstanding reconciliation	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–	1	2 (2 to 7)	0	–	0	–	5	7 (1 to 14)
Medicine not available	32	32 (22 to 41)	1	4 (0 to 12)	4	14 (0 to 27)	2	2 (0 to 4)	10	23 (10 to 36)	1	8 (9 to 24)	4	7 (0 to 14)	2	3 (0 to 7)
Route not available	11	11 (22 to 41)	0	–	1	3 (0 to 11)	1	1 (0 to 2)	4	9 (0 to 18)	2	15 (0 to 38)	4	7 (0 to 14)	0	–
Undocumented reasons	14	14 (7 to 21)	3	12 (0 to 26)	4	14 (0 to 27)	19	15 (8 to 21)	9	20 (8 to 33)	2	15 (0 to 38)	1	2 (0 to 5)	13	19 (9 to 28)
Patient refusals	21	21 (13 to 29)	5	20 (3 to 37)	16	55 (36 to 74)	34	26 (18 to 34)	8	18 (6 to 30)	2	15 (0 to 38)	30	55 (41 to 68)	14	20 (11 to 30)
Absent patient at ward round	7	7 (02 to 12)	0	–	0	–	2	2 (0 to 4)	2	5 (0 to 11)	1	~8 (0 to 24)	2	4 (0 to 9)	3	4 (0 to 9)
Other	12	12 (5 to 18)	6	24 (6 to 42)	1	3 (0 to 11)	7	1 (1 to 9)	5	11 (2 to 21)	2	15 (0 to 38)	3	5 (0 to 12)	2	3 (0 to 7)
PO	101		25		29		131		44		13		55		69

N.B. It is possible for patients to have had multiple omissions due to different reasons; for medicines from the same drug group, therefore, the sum of each column will exceed 100%.

n, number of patients with omissions reason; PO, total  patients with omissions.