BACKGROUND Prior studies suggest that unintended medication discrepancies that represent errors are common at the time of hospital admission. These errors are particularly worthy of attention because they are not likely to be detected by computerized physician order entry systems. METHODS We prospectively studied patients reporting the use of at least 4 regular prescription medications who we...

PURPOSE Medication discrepancies are defined as unexplained differences among regimens across different sites of care. The problem of medication discrepancies that occur during the entire care pathway from hospital admission to a local care setting discharge (namely all types of settings dedicated to formal care other than hospitals) has received little attention in the medical literature. The ...

OBJECTIVES To compare drugs prescribed on hospital admission with the list of drugs taken prior to admission for adult patients admitted to a cardiology unit and to identify the role of a pharmacist in identifying and resolving medication discrepancies. METHOD This study was conducted in a 300 bed university hospital in Brazil. Clinical pharmacists taking medication histories and reconciling ...

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of medication discrepancies and its related factors using medication reconciliation method in patients admitted to the emergency department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 200 adult patients with at least one chronic disease that used two regular prescription medications we...

CONTEXT The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) instituted a new regulation in 2006 to improve patient safety by decreasing medication errors. This requires a process for obtaining and documenting a complete list of each patient's current medications at hospital admission and communicating this list to the next clinician ("Medication Reconciliation"). OBJECTI...

BACKGROUND Surgical patients may be at risk for medication discrepancies that may lead to medication errors because both the anesthesiologist and the surgeon write separate preoperative medication histories. METHODS A prospective observational study was conducted to examine the extent of medication and allergy discrepancies between surgical and anesthesia preoperative medication histories for...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of a pharmacy-technician centered medication reconciliation (PTMR) program by identifying and quantifying medication discrepancies and outcomes of pharmacist medication reconciliation recommendations. METHODS A retrospective chart review was performed on two-hundred patients admitted to the internal medicine teaching services at Cooper University Hospital in ...

BACKGROUND Hemodialysis (HD) patients are on multiple medications, see many prescribers and have many hospitalizations which put them at risk for medication record discrepancies and medication related problems (MRP). Being able to effectively identify and reconcile these medication issues is crucial in reducing hospitalizations, morbidities, and mortalities. The care of the hemodialysis patient...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Discrepancies in records used within the medication use system have been identified as a contributing factor of medication errors. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency and type of discrepancies in the medication use system in one tertiary care hospital. METHODS Using a sample of patients (convenience sampling technique), the physician's orders, the n...