| Related Articles |
Electronic medication reconciliation and medication errors.
Int J Qual Health Care. 2015 Jun 29;
Authors: Hron JD, Manzi S, Dionne R, Chiang VW, Brostoff M, Altavilla SA, Patterson A, Harper MB
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To measure the impact of electronic medication reconciliation implementation on reports of admission medication reconciliation errors (MREs).
DESIGN: Quality improvement project with time-series design.
SETTING: A large, urban, tertiary care children's hospital.
PARTICIPANTS: All admitted patients from 2011 and 2012.
INTERVENTIONS: Implementation of an electronic medication reconciliation tool for hospital admissions and regular compliance reporting to inpatient units. The tool encourages active reconciliation by displaying the pre-admission medication list and admission medication orders side-by-side.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Rate of non-intercepted admission MREs identified via a voluntary reporting system.
RESULTS: During the study period, there were 33 070 hospital admissions. The pre-admission medication list was consistently recorded electronically throughout the study period. In the post-intervention period, the use of the electronic medication reconciliation tool increased to 84%. Reports identified 146 admission MREs during the study period, including 95 non-intercepted errors. Pre- to post-intervention, the rate of non-intercepted errors decreased by 53% (P = 0.02). Reported errors were categorized as intercepted potential adverse drug events (ADEs) (35%), non-intercepted potential ADEs (42%), minor ADEs (22%) or moderate ADEs (1%). There were no reported MREs that resulted in major or catastrophic ADEs.
CONCLUSIONS: We successfully implemented an electronic process for admission medication reconciliation, which was associated with a reduction in reports of non-intercepted admission MREs.
PMID: 26130746 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]