Study of Medication Reconciliation Process at the Time of Admission in the Patients of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital.

Abstract

Reconciliation errors are those that are considered harmful or possibly dangerous to patients; in fact, reconciliation errors significantly influence adverse drug events (ADEs) among admitted and discharged patients. Medication reconciliation facilitates the identification and prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events. Worldwide, ongoing medication management is a major source of concern for patient safety. Therefore, this study aims to study medication reconciliation on admission in trauma and emergency care (TEC) at a tertiary care teaching hospital. The objective of our study was to identify discrepancies and medication errors. A prospective observational study on medication reconciliation was conducted at the Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Shree Krishna Hospital (SKH) in Karamsad, Anand, from February 2023 to February 2024. The total number of identified discrepancies on admission was 64 in 45 patients. Out of 64 discrepancies, 39 were of adding type, documented as intentional discrepancies and 25 were of omission type, documented as unintentional discrepancies. The majority of those errors were moderate to severe in terms of severity. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of identifying medication discrepancies in hospital settings and provide evidence for the need to establish medication reconciliation services that would assist healthcare providers in identifying and resolving medication discrepancies.