Exploring the effects of patients taking a vigilant role in collaborating on their e-medication administration record

a b s t r a c t Objective: Errors in the electronic medication administration record (eMAR) occur in 25.6% of cases, mainly due to communication errors. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the quality of the eMAR improves when patients play a vigilant role by checking their medication using a patient communication tool linked to their eMAR (eMAR-PCT) to communicate asynchronously with the pharmacist about errors. Effects on health outcomes and self-care are also explored. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, polypharmacy patients using five or more medications were randomly selected and invited to use their eMAR-PCTs. Participants also received two digital ques- tionnaires assessing health and self-care (week 0 and 26). Statistical analyses were performed on two subgroups: eMAR-PCT users and non-users. Results: An inclusion rate of 43.5% (n = 152) was achieved. Women were more prevalent than men among the users group (56.4% vs. 43.6%). Among the eMAR-PCT users, 75% logged in more than once, and 17.9% communicated asynchronously with the pharmacist. The content of the e-mails shows that eMAR-PCT was used as intended. No improvement in the quality of the eMAR was found. The self-care variables self-efficacy (p = .006) and collaboration with the pharmacist (p = .021) showed significant improvement in the users group. Conclusion and discussion: The results showed no effect on eMAR quality and a modest improvement in self-care. Active digital patient participation to improve the quality of eMAR merits further investigation as, in line with other research, tentatively positive results are shown on self-care. Possibilities for imple- mentation are promising as half of the patients who pledged to use eMAR-PCT actually did, and used it as intended. © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.