The Need for Medication Reconciliation Increases with Age

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Medicine
• Pharmacology
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Medication reconciliation (MR) is a mandated hospital practice to minimize adverse drug events.
• Elderly patients are particularly vulnerable to medication-related complications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct medication reconciliation in elderly patients admitted to the hospital.
• To identify factors contributing to discrepancies between prescribed medications and actual consumption.

Main Methods:

• Study included patients aged 65 years and older admitted to the hospital on at least one prescription medication.
• Medication evaluation and recording performed within 24 hours of admission for 94% of patients.

Main Results:

• 82% of patients exhibited discrepancies between primary care physician (PCP) prescriptions and real medication use (RMU).
• Cardiovascular drugs were most frequently mismatched in PCP lists (39%), while alimentary tract/metabolism drugs were most mismatched in RMU (36%).
• Discrepancies involved one drug in 67% of cases; mismatching was more prevalent in females (85%) than males (46%).

Conclusions:

• Medication reconciliation processes reveal significant differences between drug prescriptions and actual patient use.
• MR holds substantial potential for identifying clinically significant medication discrepancies in all hospitalized patients.
• Addressing these discrepancies is crucial for improving medication safety in the elderly.