Commentary on electronic documentation in medication reconciliation-a challenge for health care professionals

摘要

Medication errors have been a major concern of patient safety initiatives for all health care systems of the world. After a recent medication incident in Hong Kong which led to the death of a patient with cancer on chemotherapy, the investigation panel found that many factors contributed to the tragedy, which included the system, human, and education aspects (Special Investigation Panel, 2007). Medication reconciliation targets the system level to prevent medication errors by ensuring that proper procedures are followed when a patient moves across settings or services within and outside the organization; a complete list of the patient's medications is communicated to the next provider of service (The Joint Commission, 2007).