Medication Reconciliation: Paperwork Saves Lives

Abstract

Patients often transition health care settings, such as from hospital to SNF and SNF to hospital or home. When an older adult is admitted to a new health care setting (e.g., hospital or nursing facility) or transferring within a hospital setting, it is imperative that clinicians review prior medication lists along with new orders and plans for care and reconcile any discrepancies. Research has demonstrated that inaccurate communication of medical information at transitions of care is responsible for as many as 50% of all medication errors and up to 20% of adverse drug events in the hospital setting. This is especially true for older adults on psychiatric medications which may be altered for formulary reasons or treatment of acute delirium.This session will describe the importance of accurate medication reconciliation especially during transitions of care. We will describe our interventions to improve medication reconciliation as well as demonstrate the educational program we designed as an instructional method via PowerPoint to educate health care providers to perform an accurate medication reconciliation. We implemented the program in multiple grand rounds settings with students, trainees, and attending physicians. Our educational program was successful in improving learners' knowledge in every question we tested. We will include small workshop groups to demonstrate the importance of proper medication reconciliation and for participants to practice implementing the knowledge gained. Our session will show the important of accurate medication reconciliation as well as provide the tools for attendees to impart the knowledge and skills in their institutions to improve accurate medication reconciliation for better communication and transitions of care.Please note: A version of this presentation was presented at the Annual meeting of AMDA (Society for Post-acute and Long-term Care) in 2021 and research about the educational module was published in: Lester PE, Sahansra S, Shen M, Becker M, Islam S. Medication Reconciliation: An Educational Module. MedEdPORTAL. 2019 Nov 1;15:10852. doi: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10852. PMID: 31934615; PMCID: PMC6952281. The proposed presentation for AAGP will be unique because of its focus on geriatric psychiatry patients including medication reconciliation issues related to antipsychotics and the challenges faced by frequent transfers to/from medicine and psychiatry for older adults who are in the hospital setting.