The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7470 p319
22 September 2007

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Pharmacists should check medicines on admission

Pharmacists should be involved in medicines reconciliation as soon as possible after patients are admitted to hospital, according to draft safety guidance produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in collaboration with the National Patient Safety Agency.

Part of the first round of “patient safety solutions” documents to be produced by NICE, medicines reconciliation is about ensuring that any medicines that a patient is taking before admission to hospital are properly documented on admission and transferred to the clinical record or hospital prescription chart.

At the heart of the draft guidance, released for consultation this week, is the proposal that all hospital admitting units should implement a policy that involves pharmacy to improve medicines reconciliation.

The responsibilities of pharmacists and other staff involved in medicines reconciliation should be clearly defined within the policy, it suggests.

Strategies to assist patients who might have difficulty in communicating details of their medicines should also be incorporated into the policy, the document states.

In some units, pharmacists are involved in medicines reconciliation at the time of admission or shortly afterwards, NICE acknowledges. However, it says that practice varies and pharmacists may not be readily available, particularly out of hours.

Comments on the draft safety guidance, available from the NICE website, can be made until 10 October 2007.