Students Research in Progress
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
08:30 AM–10:00 AM
Abstract
Introduction:
The medication history and reconciliation (MEDREC) process has become the focus of many guiding and regulatory agencies in an effort to reduce errors, adverse events, and improve patient safety as a result of frequent inaccuracies in this process. Currently, there is a lack of standardized MEDREC education, leaving health care professionals to rely on information received during their professional education and job onboarding.
Research Question or Hypothesis: Standardized education for medication reconciliation can improve the completion of the medication reconciliation process in an ambulatory care clinic electronic health record (EHR).
Study Design: A pilot quality improvement project that assesses the impact of implementing standardized education and training on completion of MEDREC in the EHR of an ambulatory care clinic.
Methods: Baseline data on the completion of medication reconciliation was manually collected with documentation of accuracy of each step as well as overall completion of MEDREC. The primary outcome is correct completion of medication reconciliation by 39 subjects after standardized education. Secondary outcomes evaluate which steps had the most errors. Post-education data will be analyzed via paired t-test for normal distribution or Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test for non-normal distribution.
Results: Pre-education assessment has been completed. A total of 201 medication histories were evaluated, 72 were completed correctly (~36%) and 329 medication reconciliations were evaluated, 130 were completed correctly (~40%). Among 3,193 medications across the patients’ profiles, 326 medications (~10%) were never addressed. Once education is provided, there will be a re-evaluation of correctly completed medication histories, reconciliations, and which steps had the most errors (i.e. leaving a medication on the profile that should be removed).
Conclusion: Potential benefits include reduced risk of medication-related errors, occurrence of adverse events, and improved patient outcomes. Benefits of this intervention have potential application across ambulatory care clinics and professional health education programs within academic health systems.
Presenting Author
Madelyn Hickey BSUniversity of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy
Authors
Joseph Diamond BS
University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy
Kevin Olson MBA, PharmD, CPh
University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy