Recording inpatient weight: implications for medicines administration

Abstract

Aim: To identify the proportions of hospital inpatients with recorded weights: among all patients, and among those receiving weight-dosed drug therapy.

Method: Survey of clinical notes of hospital inpatients across a convenience sample of 11 secondary and tertiary referral hospitals in England and Wales in November 2011.

Results: 1068 patients were included, and 1061 patient clinical notes were available (99.3%). Nearly all paediatric patients had recorded weights (77/78; 98.7%). Half of adult inpatients had recorded weights (503/983, 51.2%). The proportion of adult inpatients with recorded weights varied by hospital, ranging from 13.5% to 92.5% (p<0.0001). In those receiving gentamicin or therapeutic-dose low molecular weight heparin (t-LMWH), only 64.5% (71/110) had a recorded weight.

Conclusions: Half of adult inpatients, and two-thirds of those receiving gentamicin or t-LMWH, had recorded weights. There was significant variation in rates of weighing adult inpatients across hospitals. This may put patients at increased risk of side effects and problems resulting from malnutrition.

Keywords: Body weight; Gentamicin; Inpatients; Low molecular weight heparin; Malnutrition.