[Causes and factors associated with reconciliation errors in medical and surgical services]

The objective of this study was to determine the main causes of errors of medication reconciliation at hospital admission in medical and surgical department and establish factors associated with medication reconciliation errors.

Cross-sectional study. We included all patients admitted to two services and two surgical for a month. To determine the presence of error reconciliation, the pharmacist compared the medication history interview by the order physician. The factors associated with errors were identified by multivariate logistic regression analysis.

221 patients were included, of which 58.4% had at least one error reconciliation. We detected 629 discrepancies, 339 (53.9%) reconciliation errors. The incidence of errors in medical services was 24.3% and in the surgical services 43.0% (p <0.001) in both groups being most prevalent error of omission (46.2% and 50.8%). Regarding factors associated, the equation determines that patients older than 65 years, polymedicated and taking oral antidiabetic are more likely to have an error with a sensibility of 75.2% and a specificity of 68.5%.

There is a high rate of error reconciliation in medical and surgical patients, which confirms the need to implement a strategy to reduce these errors. Given the difficulty of applying the process to all patients, the strategy must be directed to patients who are at increased risk of error.