Estimating the impact on patient safety of enabling the digital transfer of patients' prescription information in the English NHS.
Transitions of care introduce risk of medication errors, even with interoperable electronic medication systems; systems that do not communicate with each other introduce even more risk. This study estimates the prevalence and burden of medication errors at transitions of care (hospital admission, hospital discharge, transfers between hospitals, and transfers within hospitals) when electronic medication records are not interoperable. Implementing interoperable prescribing systems could significantly reduce the number of errors and prevent medication error-related patient deaths.