Computerized Surveillance of Adverse Drug Events in Hospital Patients

This prospective study develops a new method to improve the detection and characterization of adverse drug events (ADEs) in hospital patients at a tertiary care center. Each day, a list of all potential ADEs was generated from an integrated hospital information system, and a pharmacist reviewed the medical records of all patients with possible ADEs for accuracy and causality. Over 18 months, only nine ADEs were identified using traditional detection methods. Physicians, pharmacists, and nurses voluntarily reported 92 of the 731 ADEs detected using this automated system. The other 631 ADEs were detected from automated signals, the most common of which were diphenhydramine hydrochloride and naloxone hydrochloride use, high serum drug levels, leukopenia, and the use of phytonadione and antidiarrheals. We believe that screening for ADEs with a computerized hospital information system offers a potential method for improving the detection and characterization of these events in hospital patients.