Development of an Electronic Tool to Facilitate the Medication Reconciliation Process and Improve Prescribing Practices

Medication discrepancies occur frequently at hospital admission and discharge. Medication reconciliation is recognized as an essential process to reduce medication discrepancies and improve prescribing practices. The University Health Network has developed an electronic tool that is integrated with the electronic patient record (EPR) and facilitates the medication reconciliation process. The tool was developed by first creating a structured, multi-disciplinary medication reconciliation strategy. The Electronic Medication Information Transfer Tool (EMITT) is populated with patient demographics, allergies and medications from the patient chart. The tool facilitates medication reconciliation documentation as well as the coding of medication discrepancies. EMITT is integrated with the electronic discharge summary application and is able to generate an electronic prescription upon discharge. The tool also generates a medication letter, a patient medication grid and a medication wallet card. The success of this project is attributed to the high degree of clinical leadership and involvement throughout the entire design and development of the electronic tool. It is anticipated that similar electronic models can be easily adopted at other healthcare institutions.