Medication reconciliation in hospital patients over the age of 65: How long does it take and how much does it cost? A time-motion study in an internal medicine ward

Hospitalization is associated with a higher risk of medication errors [ [1] Kohn L.T. Corrigan J.M. Donaldson M.S. To err is human: building a safer health system. National Academy Press, Washington, DC2000 Google Scholar ]. Indeed, many of the patient's usual prescriptions may be modified on admission, during the hospital stay itself, and/or on discharge [ [2] Grimmsmann T. Schwabe U. Himmel W The influence of hospitalisation on drug prescription in primary care – a large-scale follow-up study. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2007; 63: 783-790 Crossref PubMed Scopus (75) Google Scholar ]. These modifications concern up to 70% of patients and may account for more than half of the adverse drug events (ADEs) that occur in hospital or after discharge [ [3] Classen D.C. Pestotnik S.L. Evans R.S. Lloyd J.F. Burke J.P Adverse drug events in hospitalized patients: excess length of stay, extra costs, and attributable mortality. JAMA. 1997; (277): 301-306 Crossref PubMed Google Scholar , [4] Leape L.L. Bates D.W. Cullen D.J. Cooper J. Demonaco H.J. Gallivan T. Hallisey R. Ives J. Laird N. Laffel G. Systems analysis of adverse drug events. JAMA. 1995; (274): 35 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1750) Google Scholar ]. To reduce medication errors at care transitions, medication reconciliation (MR) was developed in the early 2000s. In a systematic, comprehensive review of all the medications a patient is taking, an accurate and comprehensive medication information is communicated consistently across care transitions [ [5] Haute Autorité de Santé. Mettre en œuvre la conciliation des traitements médicamenteux en établissement de santé. [quoted 2 february 2019]. Available fromhttps://www.has-sante.fr/portail/jcms/c_2736442/fr/mettre-en-oeuvre-la-conciliation-des-traitements-medicamenteux-en-etablissement-de-sante. Google Scholar ].