Impact of Medication Reconciliation by a Dialysis Pharmacist

Abstract

Integrating a pharmacist into a hemodialysis unit significantly reduced medication discrepancies and medication-related problems over time.Medication reconciliation for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program can be optimally performed by a dialysis pharmacist.

Keywords: dialysis; medication discrepancy; medication error; medication reconciliation; medication related problems; medication safety; pharmacist; pharmacy.

Figure 1.

Types of medication-related problems. *Drug interaction, therapeutic drug monitoring, and wrong drug.

Figure 2.

Medication-related problem safety category. Category definitions: category A, circumstances or events that have the capacity to cause error; category B, an error occurred but the error did not reach the patient; category C, an error occurred that reached the patient but did not cause patient harm; category D, an error occurred that reached the patient and required monitoring to confirm that it resulted in no harm; category E, an error occurred that may have contributed to or resulted in temporary harm to the patient and required intervention; category F, an error occurred that may have contributed to or resulted in temporary harm to the patient and required initial or prolonged hospitalization (8).