Medicine reconciliation

Medicine reconciliation is about obtaining the most accurate list of patient medicines, allergies and adverse drug reactions and comparing this with the prescribed medicines and documented allergies and adverse drug reactions. Any discrepancies are then documented and reconciled.

There are often changes to a patient’s medicine when their care is handed over to other health professionals, such as during admission to, transfer or discharge from hospital. Some of these medicine changes are unintentional due to poor information and some are intentional but not clearly documented. Both types of change can result in medication errors and/or patient harm.

Medicine reconciliation is everybody’s business. Strong collaboration, communication, and teamwork between medical, nursing, ambulance and pharmacy staff involved in the patient’s care and the patient, their carer or family members is vital for its success.