Economic value of pharmacist-led medication reconciliation for reducing medication errors after hospital discharge.
Medication discrepancies between hospital and outpatient regimens can contribute to adverse events following hospital discharge. Pharmacist involvement in medication reconciliation is known to improve medication accuracy and reduce adverse drug events. This modeling study examined how implementing pharmacist-led medication reconciliation at hospital discharge affects a hospital payer's costs. Investigators calculated that an intervention that reduced medication discrepancies by 10% would be cost neutral. If pharmacist-led medication reconciliation improves accuracy as much as prior studies suggest, then implementing this process at hospital discharge should save costs. A past WebM&M commentary described a medication discrepancy that led to an adverse drug event.