The pharmacology professor Petra Thürmann on problems with medicines in the hospital – and what helps against them.
Diana Helfrich
Professor Thürmann, you have been complaining for a long time that there are too many problems in the transition between outpatient and inpatient treatment with medicines. What mistakes are made there?
It is very typical, for example, that a drug is forgotten, i.e. simply not mentioned when you are admitted to the hospital. Then the patient in the clinic gets his or her antihypertensive drug, but not the anti-inflammatory drug, so that he or she feels pain. Or there are misunderstandings – the patient cannot remember the name of a remedy or what dosage was prescribed. That happens often, there is also excitement involved: Half of the hospital admissions are not planned.