Medication incidents at supported disability accommodation (group homes) in Victoria, Australia: a retrospective audit of calls to a poisons information centre.

Abstract

BackgroundMany residents of shared supported disability homes (sometimes referred to as group homes) require assistance from staff to manage their medicines. Disability support workers in Australia often call a 24-h emergency poisons information service for advice following a medication incident.ObjectiveTo describe the number, type and timing of medication incident calls to the Victorian Poisons Information Centre from supported disability homes in Victoria, Australia.MethodsThis was a retrospective audit of poisons centre calls from supported disability homes over a 3-month period (October to December 2021). Incidents not related to therapeutic medication use, including deliberate self-poisoning, were excluded. Calls were categorised by incident-type, time-of-call and risk of an adverse event (low/moderate/high) based on the type of medicine involved.ResultsA total of 391 medication incident calls were included (mean 4.3 per day). The most common incidents were missed doses (n=145/391, 37%) and accidental overdoses (e.g. double-dose) (n=80/391, 20%). Most calls to the poisons centre (n=284/391, 73%) were received outside business hours (before 9am or after 5pm). For incidents where the medicine(s) were known (n=326), a moderate-risk medicine (most commonly an anticonvulsant or antipsychotic) or high-risk medicine (most commonly an anticoagulant or opioid) was involved in two-thirds of cases (n=217, 66.6%).ConclusionsCalls to an emergency poisons information service about medication incidents were common, and were mostly outside business hours. Nearly half of the calls were about incidents unrelated to poisoning or toxicology, including missed doses. The study highlights a gap in medication management support for residents and disability support workers, especially after-hours, that needs to be addressed.