Sammanfattning
Background: In 2011 we conducted a study at Ålesund hospital which revealed that two thirds of
the patients had discrepancies between documented and actual medication history at admission.
Based on these results, medication reconciliation performed by trained health care personnel was
introduced in 2012.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of this new procedure in the
surgical clinic.
Method: The study was conducted as a prospective controlled study. The quality of medication
histories before and after implementation of medication reconciliation was compared. The endpoint
was discrepancies between best possible medication history obtained from the pharmacist and the
medication list recorded in accordance with the ward procedures. The method used to collect best
possible medication history was derived from the Integrated Medicines Management (IMM) model.
Result: 191 patients were enrolled in the study (77 control group, 114 intervention group). Among the
114 patients in the intervention group we discovered 51 discrepancies, whereas, for the 77 patients
in the control group, we identified 93 discrepancies. The proportion of patients with discrepancies
was reduced from 52.0 % to 25.4 %.
Conclusion: Medication reconciliation performed by nurses in the surgical ward improved the quality
of patients’ medication histories on admission to Ålesund hospital.