ISMP Survey on Medication Reconciliation

transfers : 0 months Total: 2695
About you
1. What is your profession?
Nurse 97%
Other 0%
Pharmacist 2%
Physician/prescriber 0%
2. What is your staffing level?
Administrator 1%
Manager 3%
Other 1%
Staff 95%
3. Are you familiar with the JC NPSG related to medication reconciliation? 6% - Yes 94% - No
4. Have you attended inservice education regarding your role in medication reconciliation? 4% - Yes 96% - No
About your facility
5. In what type of facility are you employed?
Assisted living 0%
Home care 0%
Hospital 99%
Long term care 0%
Other 0%
Outpatient/office-based facility 0%
Surgery center 0%
6. For admissions, how long has a medication reconciliation process been in place on your unit/in your department/facility? 
0 months 95%
1-3 months 1%
3-6 months 2%
6-12 months 1%
Don’t know 0%
More than a year 0%
7. For transfers to a different level of care, how long has a medication reconciliation process been in place on your unit/in your department/facility? 
0 months 100%
8. For discharges from your care, how long has a medication reconciliation process been in place on your unit/in your department/facility?   
0 months 97%
1-3 months 1%
3-6 months 1%
6-12 months 1%
Don’t know 0%
More than a year 1%
About your process

9. Who is primarily responsible for the following (you may choose more than one category)…

Nurse Pharmacist Physician/ Prescriber Medical Records Other Don’t Know
a. Collecting an initial medication history 8% 3% 5% 2% 3% 3%
b. Assuring the medication history is accurate 7% 3% 5% 2% 3% 3%
c. Reconciling medications between the history and the admission orders 5% 4% 6% 2% 3% 3%
d. Reconciling medications upon transfer of a patient to another level of care 5% 3% 5% 2% 3% 4%
e. Reconciling medications at the time of discharge 6% 3% 6% 2% 3% 3%
f. Sending the patient’s discharge medication list to the patient’s physician/next provider 5% 2% 3% 3% 3% 5%
10. After an admission medication history is obtained, your policy states all medications must be reconciled within how many hours?
12 93%
24 3%
36 0%
48 0%
Not Sure 3%
Other 1%
11. Does your policy specify a different timeframe for reconciliation depending upon the critical nature of the drugs on the medication history list?
No 97%
Not Sure 2%
Yes 1%
12. Your medication reconciliation process is documented on which type of form?
Combination of both 2%
Computer charting system 1%
Not documented 1%
Not sure 1%
Paper chart 96%
13. Does the prescriber order medications directly on the same form or screen used to document the initial medication history?
Always 94%
Never 3%
Not Sure 1%
Sometimes 1%
14. Please rank the relative importance of success factors and barriers encountered during the implementation of the medication reconciliation program at your facility. Scale: 1=most important, 8=least important (use each number once in the ranking process).
a. SUCCESS FACTORS
Rank
b. BARRIERS
Rank
i. Teamwork among disciplines
1 96%
2 1%
3 1%
4 0%
5 0%
6 0%
7 0%
8 0%
i. Unreliable patient
1 95%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 0%
7 0%
8 0%
ii. Clearly defined protocols
1 95%
2 2%
3 1%
4 0%
5 0%
6 0%
7 0%
8 0%
ii. Documentation from other sources
1 94%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 0%
8 0%
iii. Centralized history form/screen
1 95%
2 2%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 0%
7 0%
8 0%
iii. Lack of teamwork among disciplines
1 95%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 0%
7 0%
8 0%
iv. History collection by pharmacist
1 94%
2 0%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 1%
8 1%
iv. Extra burden
1 95%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 0%
7 1%
8 0%
v. Easy communication with outpatient providers
1 94%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 1%
8 0%
v. Lack of frontline staff input into process
1 94%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 1%
8 1%
vi. Reasonable expectations for “complete” history
1 95%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 0%
8 0%
vi. Lack of administrative leadership 
1 94%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 0%
6 1%
7 1%
8 1%
vii. Awareness of the role of each contributor
1 94%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 0%
8 0%
vii. Lack of physician leadership
1 95%
2 1%
3 1%
4 1%
5 1%
6 1%
7 0%
8 0%
15. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1=not valuable and 5=very valuable, please select a number below indicating your perception of the value of the medication reconciliation process to patient safety overall:

1 0%

2 94%

3 1%

4 1%
5 4%

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