Reducing Medication Errors and Improving Systems Reliability Using an Electronic Medication Reconciliation System

Using a multidisciplinary process based on an electronic system substantially reduced medication errors on admission, suggesting that an electronic MedRecon system can be an important tool in improving patient safety. The use of an interactive reminder alert in the MedRecon system improved systems reliability by ensuring physician compliance with MedRecon performance. Although computerized physician order entry (CPOE) decision support tools are an important component of medication error prevention strategies, they alone are not sufficient to prevent errors of prescribing.