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Medication reconciliation (MR) occurs during transitions of care and is the process of reviewing a patient’s medication list and comparing it with the regimen being considered for the new setting of care. This study developed and tested standardized assessment data elements (SADE) for reconciliation of high-risk medications in post-acute care settings. The final set included seven elements; results demonstrate feasibility and moderate to strong reliability. The resulting seven data elements may provide the means for post-acute care settings to assess and improve this important quality process. 

Opioid overdose and misuse continues to be a major public health concern with numerous policy- and organization-level approaches to encourage appropriate clinician prescribing. A northern California health system studied the effects of three interventions (individual audit feedback, peer comparison, both combined) as compared to usual care at several emergency department and urgent care sites. Peer comparison and the combined interventions resulted in a significant decrease in pills per prescription.

Medication errors are common among older adults discharged to long-term care facilities. Researchers reviewed medication discrepancy data from four long-term care facilities over a 9-month period and found that nearly 41% of newly admitted or re-admitted residents had at least one medication discrepancy discovered at nursing home intake. Residents who were prescribed 14 or more medications and those with certain comorbidities (e.g., heart failure, anemia, hypertension) were at greatest risk for discrepancies. Higher discrepancies occurred with respiratory and analgesic medications, underscoring the importance of medication reconciliation for residents with respiratory conditions or pain.

Prior research has found that unsafe opioid prescribing practices are common. This retrospective study explored the association between state opioid prescribing laws and trends in opioid and nonopioid pain treatment among commercially insured adults in the United States. Findings suggest that these laws were not associated with statistically significant changes in prescribing outcomes, but the authors note that some of these estimates were imprecise and may not be generalizable to non-commercially insured populations.

The CancelRx system is a health information technology-based intervention intended to mitigate the challenges of communicating medication discontinuation. Using secondary data from the electronic health record (EHR) system of a midwestern academic health system, researchers found that implementing the CancelRx system resulted in a significant increase in successful medication discontinuations for controlled substances.

While falls are common in older adults, there was a 31% increase in death due to falls in the U.S. from 2007-2016, partially associated with the increase in older adults in the population. This mixed methods study looked at the prevalence, risk factors, and contributors to potentially harmful medication dispensed after a fall/fracture of patients using the Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions in the Elderly (HEDIS DDE) codes. There were 113,809 patients with a first time fall; 35.4% had high-risk medications dispensed after their first fall. Interviews with 22 physicians identified patient reluctance to report falls and inconsistent assessment, and documentation of falls made it challenging to consider falls when prescribing medications.

Medication errors during pediatric resuscitation are common. Using video recordings of simulated pediatric resuscitations, the researchers explored deviations in care related to the delivery of intravenous medicine. Findings suggest that deviations play a crucial role in intravenous medication administration errors, and deviations were more likely to occur during the use of an online injectable medicine guideline.

Insulin is a high-risk medication and can contribute to adverse events in pediatric patients. This paper describes one children’s hospital’s experience implementing a new standardized medication administration process for insulin and the impact on insulin-related adverse drug events (ADEs). Findings indicate that implementation of a PRN (i.e., “as needed”) ordering process and clinician education decreased insulin-related ADEs and reduced the time between blood glucose checks and insulin administration.

Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is increasingly used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). This study found that providers or practices with higher quality measure scores of MAT continuity (percentage of patients with OUD who had at least 180 days of continuous treatment) had a lower risk of opioid-related adverse events among their patients.

The legacy of anesthesiology as a leader in patient safety is reviewed as a model for other communities seeking to reduce medical error. The authors highlight the collaboration strategies that the specialty embraced as a key component of its success.