Inaccurate, Incomplete Medication History Data Has Big Costs for Hospitals

In a time of electronic health records, e-prescribing, and cloud-based storage, it’s hard to believe that a patient’s medication history isn’t always readily available to providers within their clinical workflows.

Yet fractured data from multiple sources, inconsistent terminology between different systems, and time-consuming manual entry all hinder the medication reconciliation process. Providers are frustrated, patients are at risk of preventable adverse drug events (ADEs), and hospitals are bearing responsibility for readmissions.

The problems start early, or “upstream,” in the medication reconciliation process, with 85% of inpatient medication errors originating from information collected during admission. And the challenges continue to flow “downstream” after discharge, as providers lose sight of patients’ adherence to their medication regimens. This non-adherence—and the preventable readmissions it can cause—is estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system a whopping $290 billion per year, according to the 2019 Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

A new infographic explores how process inefficiencies and errors in the Emergency Department and at admission can jeopardize patient safety and hospital finances. See The Downstream Effects of Fractured Medication Data, then ask us how we can minimize medication history gaps to reduce ADEs and readmissions at your organization.