Leveraging technology and human factor principles to improve outpatient medication reconciliation

Medication reconciliation is the practice of making sure that medication lists are accurate through transitions of care. This is critical to reduce medication prescription medication errors, which can compromise patient safety. Evidence indicates that communication breakdowns account for a sizable portion of prescription errors, highlighting the importance of efficient medication reconciliation.Medication reconciliation has been recognised as an important patient safety measure by Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), a large tertiary hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Senior leadership at SSMC, in an effort to adopt safer practices, decided to increase the outpatient medication reconciliation compliance goal to 92%; however, meeting this new goal proved difficult. According to an analysis of the first two quarters of 2023 performance data, the department of medicine's average outpatient medication reconciliation compliance rate was persistently below the new goal of 92%, at 80%.Over the course of 14 months, from August 2023 to September 2024, 133 328 patient visits were evaluated at the department of medicine outpatient specialty clinics, a busy department serving about 9500 patients each month.This publication's goal is to highlight the quality improvement initiatives that were put in place to increase outpatient medication reconciliation compliance as well as the results of those initiatives. We were able to increase the department of medicine outpatient medication reconciliation compliance rate from an average of 80% in August 2023 to 97% in April through September 2024 by applying critical thinking, technology and human factor principles. This improvement was maintained.This study highlights the need for quality improvement teams using information technology to understand the clinical context and human elements at play. The department of medicine's outpatient medication reconciliation improvement initiative paved the way for possible replication in other departments and healthcare organisations by disseminating the lessons acquired from this quality improvement project throughout the hospital.