Medication reconciliation at admission to a pediatric oncology unit

Abstract

Objetive: Medication reconciliation is capable of preventing and correcting medication errors, which are the most frequent cause of adverse events related to patient safety. The aim of this study was to identify medication errors through medication reconciliation on admission of pediatric oncology patients.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study were included patients admitted on a pediatric oncology unit who used at least one drug prior to admission. The institution form was used for the comparison between drugs used before admission to hospital and prescription. Only discrepancies confirmed by the prescriber as unintentional were considered medication errors. The errors found were classified by therapeutic class involved, type of error and damage caused to the patient.

Results: Of the 485 drugs taken by the patients, 197 (41%) presented any discrepancy and in 68 (14%) items the discrepancy was unintentional, featuring medication errors. Of the 144 patients included in the study, 39 (27%) had at least one medication error related to the medication reconciliation. The omission of drugs was the most common error type and antineoplasics were the most frequent therapeutic group.

Conclusions: Medication errors at hospital admission of pediatric oncology patients are common, but can be identified and, mostly corrected before reaching the patient, through medication reconciliation. The implementation of this process proved to be an important element for patient safety.