[Translated article] Medication reconciliation in pediatric hemato-oncologic patients: A multicenter study

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of reconciliation errors on admission to hospital in the pediatric onco-hematological population in order to check whether they are similarly susceptible to these reconciliation errors as adults and to describe the characteristics of the patients who suffer them.

Methods: A 12-month prospective, multicentre study of medication reconciliation on admission in the pediatric onco-hematological population to assess the incidence of reconciliation errors and to describe the characteristics of the patients.

Results: Medication reconciliation was performed in 157 patients. At least a medication discrepancy was detected in 96 patients. Of the discrepancies detected, 52.1% were related to patient's new clinical situation or by the physician, while 48.9% were determined to be reconciliation errors. The most frequent type of reconciliation error was the "omission of a medication", followed by "a different dose, frequency or route of administration". A total of 77 pharmaceutical interventions were carried out, 94.2% of which were accepted. In the group of patients with a number equal to or greater than 4 drugs in home treatment, there was a 2.1-fold increase in the probability of suffering a reconciliation error.

Conclusions: In order to avoid or reduce errors in one of the critical safety points such as transitions of care, there are measures such as medication reconciliation. In the case of complex chronic pediatric patients, such as onco-hematological patients, the number of drugs as part of home treatment is the variable that has been associated with the presence of medication reconciliation errors on admission to hospital, and the omission of some medication was the main cause of these errors.

Keywords: Conciliación de la medicación; Discrepancia; Discrepancy; Errores de medicación; Hematology; Hematología; Medication errors; Medication reconciliation; Oncology; Oncología; Patient transfer; Pediatrics; Pediatría; Transiciones asistenciales.