Results of a medication reconciliation survey from the 2006 Society of Hospital Medicine national meeting.

BACKGROUND

The status of implementation of medication reconciliation across hospitals is variable to date; the degree to which hospitalists are involved is not known.

METHODS

To better describe the current state of medication reconciliation implementation, we conducted a survey of attendees of the 2006 Society of Hospital Medicine national meeting.

RESULTS

We identified a lack of uniformity across hospitals with respect to the degree of process implementation. Hospitalists were involved in design and implementation in a majority of cases, and felt that medication reconciliation would likely have a positive impact on patient safety. Tertiary care academic centers were more likely to use physicians to perform medication reconciliation, whereas community hospitals were more likely to involve nurses as well. Pharmacist participation in the medication reconciliation process was found to be quite low. Process and outcome measures were used infrequently. Patients' lack of medication knowledge and absence of preadmission medication information were cited most frequently as barriers to implementation of medication reconciliation.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of medication reconciliation is complex and challenging. Medication information is often incomplete, and elements of the medication reconciliation process result in increased time demands on providers. Current implementation efforts often have physicians and nurses "share" responsibility for compliance, and pharmacists are underutilized in medication reconciliation processes. Hospitalists have thus far played a substantial role in process design and implementation, and should continue to lead the way in advancing efforts to successfully implement medication reconciliation.