Evaluation of an electronic medication reconciliation system in inpatient setting in an acute care hospital.

Background: Medication reconciliation (MedRecon) is being implemented in many healthcare facilities as a means to reduce medication errors. However, there is scant literature on the evaluation of electronic MedRecon systems.

Objective: To evaluate the rate and type of discrepancies between a patient's home medication history and admission orders and to analyze factors affecting their occurrence using an electronic MedRecon system.

Design/methods: We analyzed 3,426 consecutive inpatient admission MedRecon events from August to October 2006 in an acute care hospital using a recently implemented electronic MedRecon system.

Results: Overall, discrepancy rate was 3.12% (n=107) with omission of a home medication being the most common type (56.52%, n=65) of discrepancy. Admission time(8 PM to 8 AM), and total home medications>4 were found to have a significant positive correlation with discrepancy rate.

Conclusion: Using multidisciplinary MedRecon process based on an electronic system, we found a low discrepancy rate between patient's home medication history and admission orders compared with the rate in the literature, implying that an electronic MedRecon system is an important tool for improving patient safety.