William H. Shrank|Amanda R. Patrick|Patrick P. Gleason|Claire Canning|Carol Walters|Alan Heaton|Saira Jan|M. Alan Brookhart|Sebastian Schneeweiß|Daniel H. Solomon|Michael S. Wolf|Jerry Avorn|Niteesh K. Choudhry
An Evaluation of the Relationship Between the Implementation of a Newly Designed Prescription Drug Label at Target Pharmacies and Health Outcomes
Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Five Prime Therapeutics (United States)|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Five Prime Therapeutics (United States)|Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City|Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Northwestern University|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University|Brigham and Women's Hospital|Harvard University
background medication errors represent major public health concern inadequate prescription drug labels identified root cause errors new prescription medication labeling system implemented target pharmacies may 2005 aimed improve health outcomes objectives evaluate whether new target label influenced patient health services utilization subjects derived 2 large health plans research design measures using administrative claims identified patients 1 9 chronic diseases filled prescriptions target pharmacies matched sample filled prescriptions community pharmacies stratified cohort new prevalent medication users evaluated impact target label outpatient emergency department inpatient health services use used linear regression segmented linear regression evaluate newuser prevalentuser analyses respectively results sample included 23745 target pharmacy users 162369 matched nontarget pharmacy users newuser analysis found significant change rates outpatient event rate ratio 053 95 ci 015186 inpatient emergency department event rate ratio 088 95 ci 062124 health services utilization target users implementation compared nontarget users similarly prevalent user analysis found change level slope outpatient emergencyinpatient services target users implementation new label compared nontarget users conclusions found statistically significant change health services use attributable implementation new prescription drug label target pharmacies findings highlight challenge influencing health outcomes interventions improve health literacy