Significance of medication reconciliation in intercepting admission medication errors in the general medicine department

Abstract

The aim of the study was to monitor the discrepancies at admission and during the treatment. A prospective observational study was conducted for a period of 6 mo at a South Indian Tertiary Care Hospital. The study was conducted according to the retrospective model of medication reconciliation. Best possible medication history was collected on interacting with patients, caregivers and medical records. This information was compared with the physician’s prescription at the time of admission. Differences were documented as intentional and unintentional discrepancies. Identified errors were classified based on National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention Guidelines. Drug-drug interactions were classified according to their severity. Errors were rectified before reaching the patient. Out of 106 prescriptions, 44 (84.62 %) intentional and 8 (15.38 %) unintentional discrepancies were identified. We have also identified 46 (43.40 %) medication errors, 60 % of medication errors were of incomplete prescriptions and 26 (56.52 %) prescriptions were intervened. We have identified 203 possible drug-drug interactions with an average of 1.92 (±2.71) per prescription. Among them 105 (51.72 %) were major, 90 (44.33 %) were moderate and 8 (11.66 %) were minor. Our study concludes that lack of medication reconciliation leads to medication errors and on the successful implementation of the medication reconciliation, as a tool in detecting and rectifying admission medication errors, we can increase patient safety.