Clinical Decision Rule for Emergency Department Medication Reconciliation

Researchers developed and validated a clinical decision tool for identifying emergency department patients at risk for at least one discrepancy in the medication history. The researchers used data from of a prospective study of discrepancies between medication histories obtained independently by physicians and pharmacists for 3592 adult patients at a large academic center in Belgium; 59% of patients had a discrepancy between the two histories (Qual Saf Health Care 2010; 19:371).

Based on results of multivariate analysis, the clinical decision rule included the following 13 variables collected by the emergency physician during initial presentation: age; sex; medical discipline for which the patient was admitted; the physician's degree of trai…