Saturday, September 02, 2006

Medication reconciliation may save lives

In a chart review of diabetic patients admitted with MI, patients who did not resume pre-hospital anti-diabetic medications at discharge (13% of the sample) had a 24% increase in mortality at 1 year.

I wish I knew more of what went on here than was contained in this sound bite version (Internal Medicine News) of a poster presentation at the American Diabetes Association annual scientific sessions. When diabetic patients are admitted to the hospital with acute illness their oral anti-diabetic medications are often supplanted by hospital insulin protocols. Although it is usually the intention to resume pre-hospital medications at discharge such instructions may not always be effectively communicated.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At our facility, we use a medication reconciliation program that is electronic - called www.MediRecon.net, It works, the patients love it, and we're going to approach the hospital to get on board. Look it up, if yuou get a chance.