Medication Reconciliation
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Medication Reconciliation
1. Medication reconciliation is a system whereby the healthcare providers keep a close tie with the patients, their families and the nurses to ensure that there a constant interaction. This is by communicating medication information often to the patients and their families. The healthcare providers ensures the patient medication orders are taken as prescribed, no medication errors, duplication, overdosing , misuse of the drugs. This should be done at each time, medication being added, changed or being discontinued are considered with due care. The healthcare provider in this manner enables the most appropriate medication prescription to the patient. Though most people consider this in the hospital context, medication this process is equally important to the outpatients also. Therefore, medication reconciliation is a very important process that no healthcare provider should ignore at any cost.
2. Medication reconciliation plays a very vital role to patients, healthcare providers and the healthcare organizations. Health organizations and the providers are at loggerheads trying to come up with the most efficient and effective medication. Numerous benefits accrue when medication reconciliation is in place. This minimizes risks of medication errors made by the providers to the patients and make the patients more involved in their own healthcare. The patients therefore become advocates for their own health safeties. In addition, the healthcare providers will improve the safety and the quality of their services; they will discover the importance, complexity and enormity of medication reconciliation. The healthcare providers will also migrate from healthcare provider to patient centered medication. The healthcare organizations will be able to meet their medical requirements, improve both their customers and staff satisfaction and improve their medication safety.
3. Medication errors occur unintentionally when prescribing, administering or dispensing drugs to the patient under their own directions or the healthcare providers’ directions. Commonly this occurs to out patients and mostly the elderly. Medication errors have very adverse effects; therefore, the healthcare providers must ensure they undertake medication reconciliation at almost all points of their interaction with the patients. The existing medication errors range from overdosing the patient, under dosing, wrong medicine timing and error of omission. Moreover, the process improves the level of customer satisfaction by ensuring the patient is taking the correct dosage as prescribed.
4. Medication reconciliation in the end improves the patients’ outcome greatly. The patient will be on the correct dosage and under close healthcare nursing; this will make him always take his medication at the correct time. The patients will be more concerned with their own healthcare and their safety always giving room for an improvement in their own health. In patients, get better medication if the earlier prescriptions have not been effective. This is because the healthcare providers will look into the patient’s medical history and be able to change the drugs for him. This will in turn improve the health of the patient.
5. The registered nurse (RN) has a very critical role to play in the medication reconciliation process. In almost all cases, the responsibility of handling and caring for the patients is always on the hand of the nurses. The nurses have a role to ensure they undertake the doctors’ medication orders. This is mainly through administering the correct prescribed dosage. The nurse close and often interaction with the patient make the most important people to see the medication reconciliation done. Finally, key to successful medication reconciliation is allowing the nurses the access to more opportunities and health resources to help them form a strong tie with the patients; this is the only way the process of mediation reconciliation will be successful.