Patient Safety
Initiatives
Medication reconciliation
The Center for Patient Safety, in collaboration with clinical and administrative staff throughout the Institute, created a novel method for medication reconciliation. In 2005, the Center began an initiative in adult ambulatory oncology. At regular appointments, clinic assistants ask patients to review their own medication and allergy lists. Patients share the updated forms with their physician or nurse practitioner and then the lists are updated electronically. At baseline, 81% of patients’ medication lists included at least one error or omission. Using medication reconciliation, clinicians updated 90% of medication lists after the appointment (compared to 2% of those who received “usual care”). In the first full year of the program, patients and staff reconciled 5,357 medication lists by deleting 10,176 discontinued drugs, correcting 1,646 medication list errors, and adding 4,293 missing medications.
View the documents and training materials used in DFCI's process, and links to publications and alerts from leading patient safety organizations.
