Impact of a software application to improve medication reconciliation at hospital discharge

Background and objective: To assess the impact of a software application to improve the quality of information concerning current patient medications and changes on the discharge report after hospitalization. To analyze the incidence of errors and to classify them. Material and method Design: Quasi -experimental pre / post study with non-equivalent control group study. Study population: Medical patients at hospital discharge. Intervention: implementation of a software application. Variables: Percentage of reconciled patient medication on discharge, and percentage of patients with more than one unjustified discrepancy. Results: A total of 349 patients were assessed; 199 (pre -intervention phase) and 150 (post intervention phase). Before the implementation of the application in 157 patients (78.8%) medication reconciliation had been completed; finding reconciliation errors in 99 (63.0%). The most frequent type of error, 339 (78.5%), was a missing dose or administration frequency information. After implementation, all the patient prescriptions were reconciled when the software was used. The percentage of patients with unjustified discrepancies decreased from 63.0% to 11.8% with the use of the application (p < .001). The main type of discrepancy found on using the application was confusing prescription, due to the fact that the professionals were not used to using the new tool. Conclusions: The use of a software application has been shown to improve the quality of the information on patient treatment on the hospital discharge report, but it is still necessary to continue development as a strategy for improving medication reconciliation. (C) 2014 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.