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The purpose of Medication Reconcilliation is to Ensure Patient Safety. 

To maintain the safety of a patient, Medication Reconciliation MUST be performed when:

1. The patient enters the hospital,
2. When the patient transfers from one level of care to another (e.g., transfering from the E.R. to and in-patient bed), and
3. When the patient is discharged from the hospital

Medication Reconciliation is in fact so important that The Joint Commission has added it to their scoring criteria (National Patient Safety Goal 8).  However, despite the importance of Medication Reconciliation, many hospitals have yet to develop processes to enforce reconciliation of patient medications and The Joint Commission has delayed adding the requirement for the time being.

The Massachusetts Coalition's practices for reconciling medications has identified 10 items that contribute to effective medication reconcilliation:

• Collect a complete list of current medications* (including dose and frequency along with other key information) for each patient on admission.
• Validate the home medication list with the patient (whenever possible).
• Assign primary responsibility for collecting the home list to someone with sufficient expertise, within a context of shared accountability.
• Use the home medication list when writing orders.
• Place the reconciling form in a consistent, highly visible location within the patient chart (easily accessible by clinicians writing orders).
• Assign responsibility for comparing admission orders to the home medication list, identifying discrepancies, and reconciling variances to someone with sufficient expertise.
• Reconcile medications within specified time frames (within 24 hours of admission; shorter time frames for high-risk drugs, potentially serious dosage variances, and/or upcoming administration times).
• Adopt a standardized form to use for collecting the home medication list and for reconciling the variances (includes both electronic and paper-based forms).
• Develop clear policies and procedures for each step in the reconciliation process.
• Provide access to drug information and pharmacist advice at each step in the reconciliation process.
• Improve access to complete medication lists at admission.
• Provide orientation and ongoing education on procedures for reconciling medications to all health care providers.
• Provide feedback, on-going monitoring (1)

This form has been developed for use by individuals and healthcare organizations. The form allows individuals to document their own mediations and present the documentation to any (and ALL) healthcare provider (ER, personal physician, etc...) so that their personal safety is maintained.  Healthcare organizations may also use the form to maintain the safety of all their patients.

The form provided here is for individual use, organizations that want to use the form need to contact our ERS Sales for an enterprise-wide license.  EverRec Systems will tailor the form to align with your organization's documentation standards. 

References

1. Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors website includes spreadsheets for data collection, generating charts, implementation strategies and tools, www.macoalition.org