Medication reconciliation: a necessity in promoting a safe hospital discharge.

Medication errors are among the most common type of patient-safety error and therefore are a priority for organizational performance-improvement efforts. Medication reconciliation has been found to greatly reduce adverse drug and medication events. At one facility, a computer-generated Physician Discharge Medication Worksheet (PDMW) was developed to aid medication reconciliation. Use of this tool led to a reduction in discrepancies in drug frequency and dose, as well as therapeutic duplication, at the time of discharge. Through the use of the PDMW, medication reconciliation has been dramatically improved.