Decreasing Unintended Medication Discrepancies in Medication Reconciliation through Simple Yet Effective Interventions

Hassan Tahir^1, , Nagadarshini Ramagiri Vinod¹, Vistasp Daruwalla², Muhammad Umair Malik¹, Nikath Zeeshan¹, Lavanya Vuppu¹, Thomas Simunich³ and Medha Joshi¹

¹Temple University, Conemaugh Memorial Hospital, Johnstown, PA, USA

²Wyne State University, Detroit Medical Center, Detroit, MI, USA

³Statistitician, Conemaugh Memorial Hospital

Cite this paper:
Hassan Tahir, Nagadarshini Ramagiri Vinod, Vistasp Daruwalla, Muhammad Umair Malik, Nikath Zeeshan, Lavanya Vuppu, Thomas Simunich and Medha Joshi. Decreasing Unintended Medication Discrepancies in Medication Reconciliation through Simple Yet Effective Interventions. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2017; 5(2):30-35. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-5-2-1

Abstract

Background: Medication reconciliation is the process of comparing a patient's medication orders to all of the medications that the patient has been taking. Unfortunately, medication errors are common in our health system accounting for significant proportion of patient harm. The main objective of our study was to explore the effect of self-designed intervention in improving the accuracy of patient current medication list in the outpatient settings. Methods: The study designed entailed collection of data from October 2013 to March 2014. The data collected in October (The pre-intervention) was compared to the post-intervention data in March 2014. Following interventions were performed: Education of residents, nurses and patients, frequent reminders to the residents to perform medication reconciliation, sending notifications to the residents who failed to perform medication reconciliation, reminding the patients get all refills at the time of appointment and reminding the patients to bring pill bottles at each appointment. The pre-intervention data was compared with the post-intervention data for different types of medication errors. Normality of the variables was pre assessed. Non-parametric analysis using Fisher’s exact test was performed for comparison of categorical variables. Conclusion: In conclusion, our intervention improved the accuracy of patient current medication list in the electronic records as accurate as possible. For clinics and hospitals, medication reconciliation can enhance delivery of high value cost conscious care to the patients by reducing medication errors.

Keywords:
medication reconciliation medication error patient harm

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