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Nonadherence to discharge instructions can occur for a variety of reasons and is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and use of healthcare services. Researchers prospectively evaluated adherence to discharge prescriptions in a convenience sample of 301 English-speaking adult patients with low acuity conditions who were prescribed medications at discharge from a single Canadian emergency department.
Adherence at 2 weeks after discharge was assessed using a provincial prescription-dispensing database and standardized patient interviews. Among 258 (86%) patients who were available for follow-up (mean age, 46), 51 (20%) did not fill their discharge prescriptions, and 104 (40%) were nonadherent with at least one medication. Patients w…