Medication reviews are carried out by pharmacists and authorised clinicians to understand a person’s experience with their current medicines and any newly prescribed medicines and ensure that their medicine use is as safe as possible.
For each medicine being reviewed, the validity and appropriateness of the medicine order, as well as the expected treatment outcomes are taken into account. A patient’s experience of using medicines and their needs may change over time, especially during an admission to a health service organisation. This means that medicines may be reviewed more than once during an episode of care.
The following are topics that may be asked when a clinician undertakes a medication review:
- When, how and whether the patient has been taking their prescribed medicines before admission to the health service organisation
- The patient’s satisfaction with the outcomes from their medicines (including those newly prescribed)
- The patient’s quality of life and life expectancy (for patients with long-term conditions).
A medication review should include assessment of current (existing and newly prescribed) medicines; the history of all medicine-related orders and how medications are taken (e.g. oral or under the skin etc).
Visit the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care website to learn more about medication reviews.