Small Changes Make a Big Difference
For patients at Loveland’s McKee Medical Center, a formalized process ensures clinician access to their complete medication histories, thereby ensuring accurate medication reconciliation.
For patient safety experts in Colorado hospitals, pretty good just isn’t good enough.
When it comes to medications, they know that the types, dosages and potential interactions of drugs taken by their patients are critically important. Even the smallest mistake in compiling a medication history and determining what to do about each of those medications during the hospital stay can lead to serious complications, or worse.
So when Connie Watson, RN, a patient safety coordinator at McKee Medical Center in Loveland, began working on the Colorado 100k Lives Campaign, she wanted to make sure that not only did the hospital have as complete and accurate a medication history as possible for each patient upon admission to the hospital, but that a formalized process was in place for every medication to document that it was evaluated by a physician—whether it was a prescription, over-the-counter medication, vitamin or even a home remedy a patient might be taking.
Including pharmacist Tiffany McCain, an interdisciplinary team placed focus on detailing each medication a patient was taking upon admission and communicating that information clearly to those caring for the patient. While medications are included as part of the overall health profile on a patient’s medical chart, McKee took that one step further by developing a separate medication history form and a specific Medication Reconciliation tab in each patient’s chart. “That way,” says Connie, “It gets more attention from clinicians every step of the way.”
It seems to be working. At the start of the campaign, McKee’s self-audit indicated they were documenting reconciliation of 31.6 percent of patients’ medications. Today, that number is up to 90 percent, a rate that has been sustained for more than six months.
“It’s a shift everyone at McKee can be proud of,” says Connie. “Everyone plays a part in the reconciliation of medications, from the patient and their families, to the nurses who take the medication history, to the doctors who write medication orders, to the pharmacists who process the orders. It’s a team effort and everyone understands how critical it is, every step of the way.”
