Posts Tagged ‘ambulatory’
Here are some key excerpts adapted from the AHRQ on Medication Reconciliation.
“Patients admitted to a hospital commonly receive new medications or have changes made to their existing medications. As a result, the new medication regimen prescribed at the time of discharge may inadvertently omit needed medications that patients have been receiving for some time. Alternatively, new medications may unintentionally duplicate existing medications. For example, a physician might prescribe a calcium channel blocker to a patient who has hypertension but is already taking another medication from the same drug class. Such unintended inconsistencies in medication regimens may occur at any point of transition in care (eg, transfer from an intensive care unit to a general ward), not just at hospital admission or discharge. Studies have shown that unintended changes in medications occur in 33% of patients at the time of transfer from one site of care within a hospital, and in 14% of patients at hospital discharge.”
DrFirst works with MEDITECH and other hospital systems to integrate medication reconciliation software and feed the data into the hospital information system.
Date: May 13-14, 2010
Location: Canton, MA
The highly anticipated MEDITECH CIO Technology Forum starts this week! This event is a great opportunity for all attendees, including DrFirst, to meet and speak with the people that are blazing the trail for health IT implementation in hospitals.
If you are going to attend, and would like to meet with a DrFirst team member, please contact us at sales@drfirst.com.
“Anti-drug [abuse] advocates say Florida has become a magnet for pill buyers in part because it is the largest state in the nation without a prescription-monitoring program.”*
Over time, some clinical providers may note a rapid increase in the amount of a certain medications needed by a patient- which may indicate the development of a form of tolerance – or frequent requests for refills before the quantity prescribed should have been used. Some unethical patients and certain “Doctor Shoppers” have grown wise to that fact, so many have begun to seek analgesics and other selected drugs from multiple physicians. Continue Reading
Imagine if an ER patient did not remember the strength and dosages of their given medications. The nurses, physicians, and staff could potentially be placing the patient at risk for drug interactions.
For nearly two years, MEDITECH and DrFirst have engaged in a strategic alliance, allowing MEDITECH facilities rapid online access to their patients’ medication history at the time of admission to the hospital or entry to selected ambulatory settings such as an Emergency Room or certain institutional affiliated clinics. MEDITECH has selected DrFirst as their partner for both electronic prescribing and medication reconciliation functionality, which are of ARRA.
