Every year in Australia, hundreds of thousands of people end up in hospital not because of a new diagnosis or an unavoidable accident — but because of a problem with their medication. A missed dose. A prescription not reconciled after a hospital stay. A confused regimen across half a dozen different boxes and bottles.

These are not inevitable outcomes. They are preventable ones. And for Australian veterans managing complex, long-term health conditions, the risks are amplified — and the consequences of getting it wrong hit harder.

The ‘Two-Thirds’ Statistic That Demands Attention

Australian research examining decades of data on medication-related hospital admissions has arrived at a striking and sobering conclusion: of all the patients hospitalised each year due to medication issues, approximately two-thirds of those admissions are considered potentially preventable.

That’s not a rounding error. That’s a systemic failure — one that the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) has identified as a national priority, publishing a dedicated Medication Management at Transitions of Care Stewardship Framework to address it head-on.

“Medication management at transitions of care is a period of high risk for medication errors and miscommunication, which can lead to harm.”

— Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2025

Why Transitions of Care Are So Dangerous

When a patient moves between care settings — from hospital to home, from a GP to a specialist, from residential care back into the community — something tends to fall through the cracks. That something is usually medication.

More than half of all medication errors occur at these transition points. Discharge summaries may be incomplete. A new prescription doesn’t account for existing medications. A patient misunderstands a dosage change. No one follows up in the critical first week after discharge.

For veterans, who often manage multiple chronic conditions and complex medication regimens, these moments of vulnerability are amplified. Research drawing on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs administrative database has tracked tens of thousands of veteran hospitalisations linked to these exact gaps in care coordination.

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  Missed or incorrect doses — particularly in patients managing five or more medications daily, where a single error cascades across days or weeks.
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  Medication changes not communicated — a hospital adjusting dosage without updating the patient’s community pharmacy or GP, leading to duplication or dangerous gaps.
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  No medication reconciliation at discharge — patients leaving hospital without a clear, accurate, up-to-date medication list.
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  No post-discharge follow-up — pharmacist-led interventions in the days after discharge dramatically reduce readmissions, yet they remain far from universal practice.
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  Confusing packaging — managing multiple blister packs, bottles and vials is cognitively demanding, especially for patients living alone or dealing with PTSD.

How Apex Health’s Med Packs Program Addresses This Directly

The Apex Health Veteran Medication Packs program was built around exactly this problem. It’s not a subscription service or a pharmacy delivery app. It’s a clinically coordinated, fully funded care program that removes every common source of preventable medication error — before it becomes a hospitalisation.

This Is What Prevention Actually Looks Like

When researchers talk about “preventable” hospitalisations, they’re describing situations where the right intervention — medication reconciliation, proper discharge planning, accessible primary care — would have made the difference. These are not hypothetical improvements. They are known, evidence-backed solutions.

The Apex Health Med Packs program delivers exactly those interventions, continuously, at no cost to eligible veterans and their families. Every month, a carefully packaged set of medications arrives at the door — the right doses at the right times, coordinated by a clinical team that knows the veteran’s full health picture.

Who Qualifies?

The program is fully funded with no out-of-pocket costs. To qualify:

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  The veteran must hold a DVA Gold Card or White Card
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  Family members (partners, children) on the same Medicare card and residing at the same address are included
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  Delivery available anywhere in Australia — no location restrictions

Getting started is straightforward. Contact Apex Health and ask your current GP for a medication summary to bring across — it will speed up the process significantly.