Implementing a medication reconciliation tool in a hospital's electronic medical record can help reduce the number of medication errors by nearly 60 percent, according to a study at Boston Children's Hospital.
Researchers introduced an EMR-based hospital admission medication reconciliation tool to the hospital between November 2011 and June 2012. The tool displayed pre-admission medication orders on the left side of the screen and allowed providers to see medications order at admission on the right side of the screen.
Medication history recording improved from 89 percent pre-intervention to 93 percent post-intervention. The rate of medication reconciliation errors fell from 5.9 errors per 1,000 admissions to 2.5 errors per 1,000 admissions, a decrease of 58 percent.
Researchers concluded such an EMR-based tool may help significantly reduce the number of reported admission medication reconciliation errors. They suggest further study is required continue improving patient safety and the role of medication reconciliation tools.
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