Implementation of a Bag Medication Reconciliation Initiative to Decrease Posthospitalization Medication Discrepancies

Abstract

Medication discrepancies occur in 70% of hospital patients, especially during discharge. In community settings, bag medication reconciliation events have demonstrated effectiveness in evaluating current medication use and identifying medication discrepancies. A bag medication reconciliation process was implemented in the hospital setting to decrease medication discrepancies by encouraging evaluation of medication adherence, side effects, and monitoring at posthospitalization follow-up. After implementation, a 7% decrease in reportable errors was noted.

Magnitude and factors associated with medication discrepancies identified through medication reconciliation at care transitions of a tertiary hospital in eastern Ethiopia

“…Despite multidisciplinary collaborations for patient care, high rates of medication errors associated with unintended medication discrepancies remain as challenges [ 1 – 3 ]. Medication errors due to such unintended discrepancies could be encountered in up to 50–70% of patients during transitions in care [ 4 – 6 ]. Regular medication reconciliation is a useful tool or service through which patient medication safety can be improved or maintained by reducing the potential medication errors [ 7 – 9 ].…”