Medication reconciliation: another change planned.

Once again The Joint Commission is revising its standard for medication reconciliation. Responses to field reviews indicated some of the key challenges had not been resolved. Experts offer these suggestions for addressing the challenges and for how to proceed while waiting for the revised standard: Use your existing medication reconciliation process, and particularly for patients for whom you have a good list of existing medicines, use your best clinical methods to ensure you're giving medications that don't have potential reactions. Recognize that The Joint Commission's position is that you should make your best efforts to get an accurate list, but it will not hold you accountable for areas you do not have control over. A new standard would not take effect until July 2011 at the earliest.