Patient Safety With Medication Reconciliation

Patient Safety Through Medication Reconciliation

The adoption of the Affordable Healthcare Act has assisted an increasing number of Americans to have access to health insurance. Despite the benefits associated with the new law, the quality of health delivery is still low because of the issue such as medication errors. The poster recommends an implementation of medical reconciliation to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in the United States. The method of achieving the medical reconciliation is to use the tools such as OASIS, HHCAHPS, Quarterly Reports, Supervisory Visits, and Organizational Performance Improvement. Application of these tools will assist in enhancing a quality of healthcare delivery.

Introduction

In the contemporary health environment, the U.S. is undergoing some fundamental changes because of an adoption of ACA (Affordable Healthcare Act) generally known as Obama Care. The new law is rapidly increasing the number American residents having a health insurance and raising the number of insured diverse population. Despite the benefits associated with the Obama Care, the quality of healthcare delivery is still limited in the United States because of the issues such as the medication errors. Typically, the medication error is one of the top causes of mortality and morbidity accounting for one out of 845 inpatient deaths and one out 130 outpatient death. "Any time that information about a patient's medication is communicated, there is a potential for error.." (Beatrice, 2014 p 153).

The associated problems make an increasing number of patients demand high-quality healthcare. Patients are also demanding for an increased variety of treatment options, thus, it is critical for Home Care Agency to implement changes using Medical Reconciliation to eliminate or reducing medication errors within the healthcare environment. (Musgrave, 2013). Moreover, the Home Health Agency is required to implement a policy to build a positive reputation, and reduce providers' mistake to boost their revenue. Thus, an implementation of medical reconciliation will allow the healthcare organization to provide the accurate patients' treatments. (Greenwald, Halasyamani, & Greene, et al. 2010).

Aim

The objective of this poster presentation is to improve patients' safety through medical reconciliation.

Materials and Method

The medication reconciliation process consists of the medication name, frequency and dose, which are cross-checked with physician or doctor's notes to ascertain its accuracy. The data collection tools consist of:

OASIS

HHCAHPS

Organizational Performance Improvement

Quarterly Reports, and Supervisory Visits.

These tools assist in preventing the medication errors. The tools have distinct strengths. First, OASIS serves as a data collection tool focusing on the patient outcome. OASIS assists providers to collect a wide variety of data that include hospital transfer, and discharge stage of care. Similarly, HHCAHPS serves as a data collection tool used to enhance patient and customer's satisfactions. The Organizational Performance Improvement has the multi-directional focus to enhance the effectiveness of care. Quarterly Reports also provides an accurate view of performances of an organization that allows patient -clinician interaction to enhance effective care outcome.

Results

The medication errors are among top cause of the morbidity and mortality in the United States. While Affordable Care Act has assisted increasing number of people having access to health insurance, nevertheless, the medication errors across the healthcare environment has jeopardized the quality of care making patients demanding for high-quality healthcare delivery. The poster presentation identifies medical reconciliation as an effective tool to reduce the medication errors and increase the quality of healthcare delivery. (Musgrave, Pilcher, Taberb, 2013). The tools recommended for the medical reconciliation include OASIS, HHCAHPS, Quarterly Reports, and Supervisory Visits.

Conclusion

The poster discusses the strategy to enhance patient's safety through the medication reconciliation. The study identifies the medication error as one of the issues that reduces the quality of healthcare delivery. The paper suggests using the tool such as OASIS, HHCAHPS, Quarterly Reports, and Supervisory Visits for the medical reconciliation.