Medication Reconciliation Strategies to Improve Medication Safety
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As the American population continues to age, many Americans are managing complex prescription medication regimens in the home setting. An increase in the use of medications comes with an increase in the risk of patient harm related to medication errors. Medication reconciliation has been supported as an effective process to reduce medication errors and adverse patient outcomes. However, many outpatient healthcare settings do not have consistent, standardized, and effective medication reconciliation processes in place. This quasi-experimental, single cohort, evidence-based practice quality improvement project aimed to determine if an evidence-based medication reconciliation intervention improved medication list accuracy and patient engagement in a group of 41 adults at an urban primary care office over 3 months. The medication reconciliation intervention involved pre-appointment patient reminders and education in addition to an electronic medication reconciliation tool and was expected to increase medication list accuracy and patient engagement in care. Wilcoxon signed-rank and one-sample Wilcoxon rank analyses indicated that the intervention resulted in a statistically significant improvement in medication list accuracy (z = 851, p = <.001, with a large effect size of r = 0.98) and patient engagement (z = 4.00, p = <0.001, with a large effect size of r = -0.98). Enhancing the medication reconciliation process in the outpatient setting may improve clinical workflows and patient experiences of care while decreasing medication errors and unnecessary healthcare costs. Improvement and standardization of the outpatient medication reconciliation process are essential to improving patient safety and patient outcomes.
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Open Access (fully available)