Reporting of adverse drug reactions in relation to general medical admissions to a teaching hospital in Hong Kong

Abstract

In Hong Kong, adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are rarely reported. We tried to improve the reporting of ADRs in our medical unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital by promoting the scheme at our regular unit meetings and by including report forms at the time of admission in the case notes of all patients admitted to two general medical wards. Registrars and interns based in these wards were requested to report all ADRs by filling in standard report forms. The hospital records of these patients were then reviewed by one investigator with two aims: (1) to assess the proportions of ADRs being reported; (2) to determine how good junior staff are in reporting ADRs. During a 2‐month period in 1992, 430 patients were reviewed. A total of 122 ADRs were present in 98 patients either at the time of admission (n = 66) or after admission (n = 56), and of these, only six (5 per cent) were correctly reported. The diagnosis was either missed or wrong in 29 cases, which represent 24 per cent of the total number of ADRs. The remaining 71 per cent of ADRs were totally ignored. Possible ways to improve the reporting of ADRs in hospital are discussed.