For Inpatients, HIV Medication Errors Are Common but Promptly Corrected

Several studies have shown that antiretroviral therapy (ART) is often prescribed incorrectly for HIV-infected patients when they are hospitalized. How do clinicians fare with this at Johns Hopkins Hospital, which has one of the best comprehensive HIV programs in the country?

Investigators reviewed ART medication orders from all hospital admissions among HIV-infected patients in 2009 (702 admissions among 388 patients). In 380 admissions, ART was ordered on the first day of hospitalization, and in 110 of these (29%), a medication error occurred. By the second day of hospitalization, however, the error rate had dropped to 7%. Incomplete regimens were the most common type of error (for example, only the protease inhibitor [PI] component was pre…