Learning Objective #1: This presentation will identify a process to assist healthcare communities with designing a computerized medication reconciliation plan.

Learning Objective #2: This presentation will identify the main problems in achieving computerized medication reconciliation.

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Today over 90,000 hospitalized patients in the United States (US) experience some type of medication error each year and 60% of these errors occur during a transition of care. Additionally, 3.2 – 9.6% of all hospital admissions are due to adverse drug events representing the fifth leading cause of death in the United States (Kramer, Hopkins, Rosendale, Garrelts, Hale, Nester, Cochran, Eidem, & Haneke, 2007). In response to this patient safety concern, the Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation has requested all institutions to incorporate a process for making sure that all health care records contain up to date and accurate medication list, also called “medication reconciliation” (JCAHO, 2006). Today's fragmentation in the US health care system increases the complexity to achieve the medication reconciliation for prescribers and providers of healthcare services and products as well as patient and their caregivers.

The Greater Cincinnati Ohio, US health care community which serves more than 1 million residents has acknowledged that an incomplete patient medication history at the point of service places a patient at risk for a medication error. This issue has led to a community wide medication reconciliation strategic initiative to identify a process where an accurate and complete patient medication list is shared across the continuum of are. This presentation will provide a framework for designing and implementing a strategy to begin the process of linking all community providers of healthcare services and products in a real-time up-to-date medical reconciliation system.