Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Amrit Virdee
Introduction
Medication Reconciliation is defined as the process of identifying the most accurate list
of all medications that a patient is taking where the goal is to obtain and maintain accurate
medication records so that the information can be used within or across the continuum of care to
In one study, 74% of patients had medication discrepancies between their patient reports
and their Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Of those discrepancies, 51.5% of the errors were
due to medications reported by patients not listed in the EHR such as over-the-counter
medications, medications patients forgot to report and medications from outside precribers.
Another study discovered that on average, each patient has more than 4 medication errors with
respect to their home medication list. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million preventable
adverse drug events occur annually as a result of medication errors, at a cost of more than $3
billion per year and 20% of all adverse drug events have been attributed to poor communication
at the transition of care. Adverse drug events account for approximately 2.5% of estimated
Medication reconciliation is currently listed as one of the core measures in Stage 2 of the
meaningful use guidelines as proposed by the CMS. With the advent of more pharmacies
adopting EHRs, pharmacists can gain from getting to know their patients better, make better
informed decisions, improve efficiency and save money. The Pharmacy e-HIT Collaborative
advocates integrating the pharmacist’s role of providing patient care services into the national
HIT interoperable framework. The Collaborative has issued a 10-goal plan entitled “The
Roadmap for Pharmacy Health Information Technology Integration in U.S. Health Care” to
THE PHARMACIST’S ROLE IN MEDICATION RECONCILIATION OF EHR’S
promote the inclusion of pharmacists as recognized providers of the CMS HIT strategy. Some of
the goals defined under the roadmap include achieving recognition of pharmacist as meaningful
users of EHR quality measures and the integration of pharmacies and pharmacist into health
information exchanges.
Pharmacists have often been coined as the most accessible healthcare professional and
pharmacists have a pivotal role in collaborating with other health care providers to ensure that an
effective process for medication reconciliation is in place. This adoption can be used to reduce
adverse drug events across the continuum of care. As a pharmacist I believe that we need to be
part of the decision making and management process of EHRs using our expertise in educating
patients and other health care providers about the benefits that pharmacists can bring in
medication reconciliation. The goal of this paper is to establish how pharmacists can help the
References
HIMSS. (2016, December 29). The Meaningful Use of Electronic Medication Reconciliation.
from http://www.himss.org/meaningful-use-electronic-medication-
reconciliation?ItemNumber=29863
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(1), 2017, 193–197 doi: