How reliable are patient-completed medication reconciliation forms compared with pharmacy lists?

Objectives: Medication reconciliation is a Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requirement to reduce medication errors. This study evaluated the reliability of patient-completed medication reconciliation forms (MRs) compared with pharmacy-generated lists and determined if there was a difference in concordance when patients completed the forms from memory compared with when they brought a separate list or pill bottles. Methods: We prospectively enrolled patients with completed MRs. Research assistants contacted the patient's pharmacy to determine medications filled in the prior 3 months, which was compared with the MR. Discrepancies and the method by which the patient completed the MR (memory, list, or pill bottles) were recorded. Results: Three hundred fifteen patients were enrolled. Thirty-three percent made errors of omission (reported by pharmacy, but not on MR), 12.7% made errors of addition (reported on MR, but not by pharmacy), 18.1% made both types of errors, and 36.3% made no errors. Patients with errors were on 5.6 medications compared with 3.6 medications for those without errors (P < .0001). Those completing the MR from a list made 2.3 errors compared with 1.2 for those completing from memory and 1.8 for those completing from their pill bottles (P < .001). Of 390 medications omitted from patient lists, 16% were cardiac medications, 13% were neuropsychiatric agents, and 9.5% were narcotics. Conclusions: Thirty-six percent of patients were able to provide a medication list that matched their pharmacy-prescribed drugs. More errors were noted from patients taking more medications and from those completing their MR from a separate list. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.