High-tech approach to medication reconciliation saves time, bolsters safety at hospital in northern Virginia.

Clinicians in the ED at Alexandria Inova Hospital in Alexandria, VA, have been able to streamline the medicine reconciliation process with the help of a new high-tech tool that retrieves a patient's medication history in a matter of minutes and transforms the data into a form that can automatically populate the patient's electronic medical record.The approach is facilitated by the regional health information exchange (HIE) organization, and will eventually be available to other providers in northern Virginia. Thus far, 80% to 90% of patients who have come through the ED have consented to have their medication history electronically retrieved. Eventually, administrators anticipate that the same approach will be used to share patient radiology studies, laboratory results, and other patient information across providers. Experts predict this practice will be commonplace among U.S. hospitals within five years, but they encourage hospital and ED administrators to take advantage of opportunities to leverage regional HIEs.