BACKGROUND Medication reconciliation reduces potential medication discrepancies and adverse drug events. The role of pharmacy technicians in obtaining best possible medication histories (BPMHs) and performing reconciliation at the admission and transfer interfaces of care for pediatric patients has not been described. OBJECTIVES To compare the completeness and accuracy of BPMHs and reconcilia...

BACKGROUND Cirrhosis patients are prescribed multiple medications for their liver disease and comorbidities. Discrepancies between medicines consumed by patients and those documented in the medical record may contribute to patient harm and impair disease management. The aim of the present study was to assess the magnitude and types of discrepancies among patient-reported and medical record-docu...

BACKGROUND Adverse drug reactions are a leading cause of death in the United States. Safe and effective management of complex medication regimens is a skill for which recent medical school graduates may be unprepared when they transition to residency. We wished to assess the impact of a medication safety curriculum on student competency when evaluating medication therapeutic appropriateness as ...

Medication reconciliation (MR) is a process that seeks to assure that the medications a patient is supposed to take are the same as what they are actually taking. We have developed a method in which medication information (consisting of both coded data and narrative text) is extracted from twelve sources from two clinical information systems and assembled into a chronological sequence of medica...

The Health Quality & Safety Commission works with clinicians and health service providers to improve the quality and safety of health and disability services. One of the Commission’s priorities is for district health boards (DHBs) to implement paper or electronic medicine reconciliation in all hospitals by January 2012.1 To date, 17 DHBs have implemented medicine reconciliation based on the saf...

Preventable adverse drug events are associated with one out of five injuries or deaths. Estimates reveal that 46% of medication errors occur on admission or discharge from a clinical unit/hospital when patient orders are written. This study was performed to reduce medication errors in patient's discharge orders through a reconciliation process in an adult surgical intensive care unit (ICU). A d...

BACKGROUND Poor communication of drug therapy at care interface often results in medication errors and adverse drug events. Medication reconciliation has been introduced as a measure to improve continuity of patient care. The aim of this cross-sectional observational study was to evaluate the need for medication reconciliation. METHODS Comprehensive information on pre-admission therapy was ob...

OBJECTIVE To describe two innovative practice models that expand pharmacy services within a nursing facility's transitional care unit (TCU) to meet the needs of patients transitioning to subacute or community care. SETTING TCU in a hospital-based vs. a community-based facility. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION The two TCUs involved in these practices differ in that one is hospital-owned and the other i...

Medication reconciliation is one of the most important priorities of national and international patient safety efforts, due to the numerous deaths and adverse drug reactions caused by inappropriate medication use. One of the main challenges of general practitioners (GPs) is to get an overview of changes in the patients’ medications after transitions between healthcare institutions. This paper p...