The Health Information and Quality Authority has today published Principles of Good Practice in Medication Reconciliation to offer guidance to healthcare professionals aimed at reducing medication errors.

Medication errors make up a significant number of patient safety events across the world and can potentially lead to very serious outcomes as patients move between different health and social care settings.

Medication reconciliation is the process of creating and maintaining the most accurate list possible of all medications a person is taking in order to identify any discrepancies and to ensure any changes are documented and communicated. This results in a complete list of medications which can then be communicated to the next care provider.

Marie Kehoe-O’Sullivan, Director of Safety and Quality Improvement at HIQA, said: “As patients move between different healthcare settings, such as an acute hospital, nursing home or GP practice, there are increased risks of medication errors occurring. This may be as a result of medications being discontinued, new ones introduced or dosages changed. So it is imperative that any such changes are recorded and communicated to the patient’s next healthcare professional.”

“Properly implemented, medication reconciliation can have a hugely positive impact on patient safety as it can ensure that patients and doctors have accurate, up to date information on medications at all points within and between health and social care services. The medication incidents most commonly reported to Ireland’s Clinical Indemnity Scheme in 2012 were medication reconciliation incidents, and this shows that there is a lot of room for improvement in this area.”

Checklists are recognised as a useful tool to ensure that all the steps in the process are followed and this guidance includes four examples which have been developed and tested in hospitals and nursing homes in Ireland.

Further Information: 

Sinead Whooley, Communications Manager, Health Information and Quality Authority. Tel: 01 814 7488/ 087 922 1941 Email: swhooley@hiqa.ie