Definitions, Data Sources and Search Strategy

We define a MAE as ‘any deviation between the medication prescribed and that administered’[26, 27]. We take the term ‘prescribed’ to include verbal or written prescriptions and instructions. Our definition of a home carer is any person that provides care and assists in the living activities of patients within their home. This includes both formal paid caregivers working for a healthcare or social service organisation (e.g. agency carers or community nurses) and informal caregivers who are not paid (e.g. relatives or friends of the care recipient).

A review of literature published between 1 Jan 1946 and 23 Sep 2013 was carried out in the online databases EMBASE, MEDLINE, PSYCHINFO, COCHRANE and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). The search strategy involved three conceptual facets: Medication errors/safety, the domiciliary setting, and carer involvement. Care recipients could be adults or children.

To achieve a balance of specificity and sensitivity, multiple iterations and combinations of search terms were tested. Terms were omitted if the sensitivity/specificity were compromised, e.g. the term ‘outpatient’ resulted in a very high number of irrelevant articles. Included terms were based on their use in the literature; e.g. ‘adverse drug event’ is commonly used to include drug errors[7]. The most relevant Medical Subject Heading (MeSH®) term ‘Medication Errors’ was included. For carer involvement, we included healthcare professionals that are most likely to manage medications in the home. S1–S3 Tables present the final search strategies used. The references of the included articles were cross-referenced for missed articles.