Discharge Medication Reconciliation
This use case scenario helps healthcare providers share patient medication information at time of discharge with other care team members and organizations, including physicians, practices, pharmacies, hospitals, and transitional facilities such as outpatient and skilled nursing facilities.
Use Case Summary, Implementation Guide and Supporting Documents
MIHIN Exchange Medication Reconciliation Use Case Summary
MiHIN Discharge Medication Reconciliation Use Case Implementation Guide
About this Scenario
When a patient’s medications change it is critically important to check the patient’s medication list to be sure there are no problems with new, different or missing medicines. “Medication reconciliation” is the detailed process of checking the accuracy of a patient’s medications, particularly when those medications have changed. Finding and correcting medication discrepancies helps avoid errors such as omissions, duplications, dosing errors or negative drug interactions. Regular confirmation of a patient’s medications can also help confirm the patient is correctly following a treatment plan, which could be done through an online pharmacy should they want have access to their medication online.
Medication reconciliation becomes critical when a patient moves from one care setting to another, such as being admitted to or discharged from a hospital. These “transitions of care” very commonly involve prescription of new medications which may interact negatively with a patient’s existing medications.
Coordinating and sharing a patient’s medication information in real-time has many benefits, both for patients and their healthcare providers. Better, faster coordination can minimize the possibility of adverse drug events for patients and maximize cost benefits for providers.
The “Discharge Medication Reconciliation” use case scenario is under the Medication Reconciliation use case.