[Medication errors and medication reconciliation from a hospital pharmacist's perspective].

To reduce medication errors and other drug-related problems, their systematic discovery, documentation and evaluation is essential. The web-based documentation database ADKA-DokuPIK enables both the documentation and the publication of annotated individual cases and, moreover, systematic errors or accumulations of risk drugs may be determined. Medication reconciliation is another important component to increase safety in drug therapy. Hospital pharmacists may support and significantly improve this process. In Germany some initial information from various projects is available. Medication reconciliation performed by hospital pharmacists may significantly increase the completeness and accuracy of medication regimens. Patient counselling together with the necessary drug supply at discharge improves patients' knowledge, closes supply gaps and improves the satisfaction of all parties.