THE PHARMACIST’S ROLE IN MEDICATION RECONCILIATION OF EHR’S

The Role of the Pharmacist

In Medication Reconciliation of Electronic Health Records

Amrit Virdee

University of San Diego

March 6th 2016
THE PHARMACIST’S ROLE IN MEDICATION RECONCILIATION OF EHR’S

Introduction

Medication Reconciliation is defined as the process of identifying the most accurate list

of all medications that a patient is taking where the goal is to obtain and maintain accurate

medication records so that the information can be used within or across the continuum of care to

ensure safe and effective medication usage.

In one study, 74% of patients had medication discrepancies between their patient reports

and their Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Of those discrepancies, 51.5% of the errors were

due to medications reported by patients not listed in the EHR such as over-the-counter

medications, medications patients forgot to report and medications from outside precribers.

Another study discovered that on average, each patient has more than 4 medication errors with

respect to their home medication list. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million preventable

adverse drug events occur annually as a result of medication errors, at a cost of more than $3

billion per year and 20% of all adverse drug events have been attributed to poor communication

at the transition of care. Adverse drug events account for approximately 2.5% of estimated

emergency department visits for all unintentional injuries.

Medication reconciliation is currently listed as one of the core measures in Stage 2 of the

meaningful use guidelines as proposed by the CMS. With the advent of more pharmacies

adopting EHRs, pharmacists can gain from getting to know their patients better, make better

informed decisions, improve efficiency and save money. The Pharmacy e-HIT Collaborative

advocates integrating the pharmacist’s role of providing patient care services into the national

HIT interoperable framework. The Collaborative has issued a 10-goal plan entitled “The

Roadmap for Pharmacy Health Information Technology Integration in U.S. Health Care” to
THE PHARMACIST’S ROLE IN MEDICATION RECONCILIATION OF EHR’S

promote the inclusion of pharmacists as recognized providers of the CMS HIT strategy. Some of

the goals defined under the roadmap include achieving recognition of pharmacist as meaningful

users of EHR quality measures and the integration of pharmacies and pharmacist into health

information exchanges.

Pharmacists have often been coined as the most accessible healthcare professional and

pharmacists have a pivotal role in collaborating with other health care providers to ensure that an

effective process for medication reconciliation is in place. This adoption can be used to reduce

adverse drug events across the continuum of care. As a pharmacist I believe that we need to be

part of the decision making and management process of EHRs using our expertise in educating

patients and other health care providers about the benefits that pharmacists can bring in

medication reconciliation. The goal of this paper is to establish how pharmacists can help the

continuum of care by using EHRs to reconcile patient medications.

References

HIMSS. (2016, December 29). The Meaningful Use of Electronic Medication Reconciliation.

from http://www.himss.org/meaningful-use-electronic-medication-

reconciliation?ItemNumber=29863

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(1), 2017, 193–197 doi:

10.1093/jamia/ocw044 Advance Access Publication Date: 23 April 2016 Perspective