title: A medication reconciliation form and its impact on the medical record in a paediatric hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of medication information available in medical charts before and after the implementation of a medication reconciliation form.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a retrospective chart review of patients under 18 years who were taking two medications or more at home and were admitted to a paediatric hospital for more than 24 hours and discharged from a general paediatrics, infectious disease, gastroenterology or pneumology ward over two 20-week periods (pre- and post-implementation). Each week, 10 medical records were randomly chosen and reviewed. The quality of the medication information was measured on admission (dose, route of administration and frequency) and on discharge (dose, route of administration, frequency and duration of treatment). The proportion of medications that fully met these criteria was compared between the groups using the chi-squared test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Information was analysed for a total of 3275 medications in the pre-implementation group, vs. 3240 medications in the post-implementation group. Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. On admission, the quality of medication information was comparable between the pre- and post-implementation groups (29.1 vs. 29.3%, respectively; P = 0.86). However, on discharge, an improvement in the quality of information was observed in the post-implementation group (51.7 vs. 65.2%; P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that the forms used in the reconciliation process, in particular the discharge prescription, could increase the quality of the information related to drug use in medical charts. We believe that medication reconciliation forms should be widely used by all the health care professional teams involved in the drug history or prescription process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bédard
authors.forename: Lyne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tardif
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferland
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bussières
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lebel
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Girard
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lachaîne
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000379:methods*; D008499:Medical Records; D059065:Medication Reconciliation / Q000592:standards*; D011792:Quebec; D012189:Retrospective Studies