Incidence of Medication Errors in Medication Reconciliation at General Medical Wards, Ramathibodi HospitalT. Paiboonvong, P. Montakantikul*, S. Chansirikarnjana, and P. Tragulpiankit
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To determine medication errors (MEs) by pharmacist during medication reconciliation at the time of admission, transfer and discharge at Ramathibodi Hospital. A prospective descriptive study, patients were enrolled at the time of admission between February and April, 2008 at general medical wards, Ramathibodi Hospital, a teaching institution at Mahidol University, Thailand. One clinical pharmacist interviewed each patient to obtain medication history and reconciled the lists with medication orders during admission until discharge. At admission, current medications that the patients were taking were compared with admission medication orders. At transfer, medications during hospitalization were compared with medication orders at transferring units. At discharge, the medications before admission and during hospitalization were compared with discharged orders. All medication discrepancies were discussed with physicians to classify as intention, undocumented intention or unintention which were considered to be MEs. Overall, 41.1% of patients had MEs at the time of admission, transfer or discharge. Most of MEs (29.9%) occurred at the admission time. Of 77 MEs, omission of medications (61%) was commonly found at admission through discharge and 87.3% of errors were prevented by the pharmacist before reaching the patient. MEs at transition points of patient care were common and medication reconciliation was a strategy to prevent MEs. Pharmacist had an important role in preventing MEs by reconciling medications.
Keyword:
medication errors, medication reconciliation, Ramathibodi Hospital, MEs
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