Potential Risk of Medication Discrepancies and Reconciliation Errors at Admission and Discharge from an Inpatient Medical Service

Abstract

Medication reconciliation strategies should focus primarily on avoiding errors at discharge. Since medication discrepancies at admission may predispose patients to reconciliation errors, early detection of such discrepancies would logically reduce the risk of reconciliation errors. Medication reconciliation programs must implement a process for gathering accurate preadmission drug histories and must submit this information to a critical assessment of patients' needs.