EMR Tool Cuts Errors In Half

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

A medication reconciliation tool embedded into an EMR system can reduce medication errors by more than half according to a new study from Boston Children’s Hospital.

During a study period between November 2011 and June 2012, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital introduced EMR-based hospital admission medication reconciliation tool to the hospital. In this time, the hospital saw more than 33,000 patients and used the EMR for 75 percent of cases.

According to Health IT Analytics, the hospital used a split screen to display pre-admission medications on one side and a list of new medications ordered by their doctor on the other side. This allowed physicians to clearly see any potential adverse drug effects caused by conflicting prescriptions. “This tool within the electronic health record encourages active medication reconciliation by displaying pre-admission medications on the left side of a split screen, allowing the user to manipulate the list to generate admission medication orders on the right. Reporting tools were developed to provide daily feedback if reconciliation was not performed,” explain researchers.

As Becker’s Hospital Review reports, using this tool led to a 58 percent reduction in medication errors during the study. Medication history recording improved from 89 percent pre-intervention to 93 percent post-intervention. The rate of medication reconciliation errors fell from 5.9 errors per 1,000 admissions to 2.5 errors per 1,000 admissions, a decrease of 58 percent.

“The implementation of an electronic tool for medication reconciliation was associated with a significant decrease in the number of reported admission medication reconciliation errors in a pediatric population,” the Boston Children’s study concludes. “These findings support ongoing national efforts related to medication reconciliation to improve patient safety and the role of the tools used.”