Study: Medication Reconciliation Failed to Lower Adverse Drug Events in Heart Patients

Approximately half of patients hospitalized with acute coronary syndromes or acute decompensated heart failure had at least one clinically important medication error 30 days post-discharge despite a medication reconciliation intervention, according to a study in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers studied 851 adults hospitalized with acute coronary syndromes or acute decompensated heart failure at two tertiary care academic hospitals. A randomized group of patients received implemented pharmacist-assisted medication reconciliation, inpatient pharmacist counseling, low-literacy adherence aids and individualized telephone follow-up after discharge.


Thirty days after discharge, 50.8 percent of all patients had one or more clinically important medical errors, which include preventable or ameliorable adverse drug events, medication discrepancies and nonadherence with high potential for future harm. The intervention did not significantly affect the per-patient number of clinically important medication errors or adverse drug events. However, patients receiving the intervention tended to have fewer potential ADEs.

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