New Study Reveals Most Accurate Sources for Medication Reconciliation

When combined with an electronic health record and commercial prescription database, medication data from health information exchange improves patient medication safety.

Trying to get an accurate medication list, particularly for patients with complex conditions or who are unable to provide reliable information can be a puzzle for health care providers. Managing patient medications during transitions of care can be tricky but doing so accurately is crucial in preventing adverse events.

More Than One Source Needed for Medication Reconciliation

A recent study funded by the New York State Department of Health sought to explore how hospitals sourced patient
medication lists and to evaluate the accuracy and completeness of these lists. “The Comparative Value of 3 Electronic Sources of Medication Data,” was published last month in The American Journal of Pharmacy Benefits. It looked at admissions to two community hospitals in upstate New York and included 858 patients on 7,731 medications.

The study showed that data from the electronic health record (EHR) alone did not capture medications accurately or completely. When combined with medication data from a local health information exchange (HIE) and a commercial medication database of pharmacy fills, accuracy increased from 80% to 91%.

“Given the significant financial investments being made in HIE to improve patient safety, our data support the value of combining medication history information from multiple sources to improve the completeness and accuracy of information,” the authors concluded.

Real-Time Medication Data Augments Lists

If a patient is unable to accurately recall prescription information and/or updated information is not available in the patient record, a medication could be missed or inaccurately dispensed. For example, it might be crucial that a medication for a chronic condition is continued during the patient’s hospital stay. Medication, allergy and problem lists included in the CORHIO HIE network are sent through real-time interfaces, so the results are immediately available to providers on the network. The network currently has clinical data on nearly 4 million patients in Colorado.