Telemedicine vs Telephone Consultations and Medication Prescribing Errors Among Referring Physicians: A Cluster Randomized Crossover Trial
Authors' conclusion
This cluster randomized crossover trial found no statistically significant differences in physician-related medication errors between critically ill children assigned to receive telephone consultations vs video telemedicine consultations.
Study context
- Population
- Acutely ill children younger than 15 years presenting to 15 community emergency departments (EDs) in northern California
- Participants
- 696 patient encounters
- Comparison
- Telemedicine vs Telephone
- Telemedicinen = 537
- Telephonen = 159reference
- Primary endpoint
- Physician-related medication errors (pharmacist record review, validated instrument; medication order as unit of analysis)
Methodological detailscluster randomized, unbalanced crossover, multicentre, 15 community EDs, September 2014 to March 2018
- Cluster randomized
- Unbalanced crossover
- Multicentre
- 15 community EDs, September 2014 to March 2018
Primary result
Medication errors per order
Adjusted odds ratio
0.86
95% CI 0.49–1.52
P = 0.61
Events by treatment group
Telemedicine vs Telephone
aOR 0.86 (95% CI 0.49–1.52); P = 0.61
As reported in the abstract
Further findings
≥1 physician-related medication error per patient
Original publication
Telemedicine vs Telephone Consultations and Medication Prescribing Errors Among Referring Physicians: A Cluster Randomized Crossover Trial. JAMA Netw Open. Published 5 February 2024. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →