This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Poon, E. G. Articles by Broverman, C. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Poon, E. G. Articles by Broverman, C. A.

Design and Implementation of an Application and Associated Services to Support Interdisciplinary Medication Reconciliation Efforts at an Integrated Healthcare Delivery Network

^a Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
^b Partners Information Systems, Wellesley, MA
^c Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
^d Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

^_* Correspondence and reprints: Eric G. Poon, MD, MPH, Clinical Informatics Research and Development, Suite 201, 93 Worcester St., Wellesley, MA 02481. (Email: epoon{at}partners.org).

Received for publication: 05/10/06; accepted for publication: 08/11/06.

Confusion about patients’ medication regimens during the hospital admission and discharge process accounts for many preventable and serious medication errors. Many organizations have begun to redesign their clinical processes to address this patient safety concern. Partners HealthCare, an integrated delivery network in Boston, Massachusetts, has answered this interdisciplinary challenge by leveraging its multiple outpatient electronic medical records (EMR) and inpatient computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems to facilitate the process of medication reconciliation. This manuscript describes the design of a novel application and the associated services that aggregate medication data from EMR and CPOE systems so that clinicians can efficiently generate an accurate pre-admission medication list. Information collected with the use of this application subsequently supports the writing of admission and discharge orders by physicians, performance of admission assessment by nurses, and reconciliation of inpatient orders by pharmacists. Results from early pilot testing suggest that this new medication reconciliation process is well accepted by clinicians and has significant potential to prevent medication errors during transitions of care.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. L. Schnipper, C. Hamann, C. D. Ndumele, C. L. Liang, M. G. Carty, A. S. Karson, I. Bhan, C. M. Coley, E. Poon, A. Turchin, et al. Effect of an Electronic Medication Reconciliation Application and Process Redesign on Potential Adverse Drug Events: A Cluster-Randomized Trial Arch Intern Med, April 27, 2009; 169(8): 771 - 780. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Turchin, C. Hamann, J. L. Schnipper, E. Graydon-Baker, S. G. Millar, P. C. McCarthy, C. M. Coley, T. K. Gandhi, and C. A. Broverman Evaluation of an Inpatient Computerized Medication Reconciliation System J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc., July 1, 2008; 15(4): 449 - 452. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]