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Background Discharge prescribing error is common. Little is known about whether it persists post-discharge. Objective To explore the relationship between discharge prescribing error and post-discharge medication error. Setting This was a prospective observational study (March–May 2013) at an adult academic hospital in Ireland. Method Patients using three or more chronic medications pre-admission, with a clinical pharmacist documented gold-standard pre-admission medication list, having a chronic medication stopped or started in hospital and discharged to home were included. Within 10–14 days after discharge a gold standard discharge medication was prepared and compared to the discharge prescription to identify differences. Patients were telephoned to identify actual medication use. Community pharmacists, general practitioners and hospital prescribers were contacted to …