12 Signs that Medication Reconciliation is Ideal
If your medication reconciliation process could be designed without any limitations or barriers, what would it look like? A new toolkit from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) suggests that an ideal reconciliation process:
- Is fully electronic and automated.
- Employs a standardized process across all care settings.
- Supports a multidisciplinary, team approach.
- Employs a single list, used by all clinicians within a care setting, to document and validate a patient's current medications upon admission.
- Features electronic access to the patient's medication information from various sources, including community pharmacies, physician offices and past medical records.
- Is fully integrated into the clinician’s workflow with effective prompts, reminders and/or forcing functions. These functions automatically populate the patient’s electronic medical record.
- Is fully integrated into the management of the patient’s medication regimens and is not considered to be an "additional task."
- Features advanced clinical decision support that integrates documented care plans with the patient's current medication regimen; compares this information to the medications ordered during the episode of care; electronically identifies unintended discrepancies; and alerts the clinician to those discrepancies.
- Includes electronic capabilities to assist the clinician with auto-substitution upon admission, based on formulary implications.
- Sends messages directly to physician pagers or inboxes when updates or changes to the patient's home medication list occur and/or when discrepancies are identified and require clarification.
- Has an electronic, seamless process to communicate medication lists—as well as changes to that list—to the next provider(s) of service.
- Makes sure patients and/or caregivers are active participants in the medication reconciliation process.
The AHRQ toolkit is based on the Medications at Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (MATCH) program developed at Northwest Memorial Hospital in Chicago with AHRQ support. The toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to improving the medication reconciliation process and incorporates the lessons learned by health care facilities that have implemented the MATCH strategies.
While the toolkit is based on processes developed in acute-care settings, it can be adapted for use in post-acute facilities, according to AHRQ.