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Abstract

Patients suffer unintentional harm from their medications. Many organizations have proposed that healthcare providers implement strategies to decrease medication related harm for patients. This study implemented a brown bag review along with medication safety education within a clinic that caters to the poor and uninsured. It was notable that the majority of the participants educational levels were equivalent to a high school graduate or beyond. In the pre-intervention survey, they expressed that they were knowledgeable about the purpose of their medicines, they knew the correct way to use their medications, and they were aware of potential side effects. During their medication review the majority of the patients had medications in their bags that were not previously recorded within their medical record. These patients also had medications that could cause potential harm. There was one patient who had the potential for serious harm. There were discrepancies with the patents’ medication use including duplication in medication therapies. In the post-intervention surveys, although most patients considered themselves knowledgeable about their medications at the initiation of study, they did show improvements in knowledge moving from agree to strongly agree on items in the post-intervention survey addressing knowledge. As in other studies the updating of the medical record to reflect the contents in the bag were not consistent.

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