title: How reliable are patient-completed medication reconciliation forms compared with pharmacy lists?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
authors.affiliation: Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY 12208, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Woolley
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jeanmonod
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jeanmonod
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059065:Medication Reconciliation / Q000379:methods*; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D010594:Pharmacies; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011996:Records; D057566:Self Report; D013997:Time Factors