What is the purpose of medication reconciliation?

The purpose of medication reconciliation is to ensure accuracy and completeness of a patient's medication lists throughout care transitions. This is essential because patients often move between different care settings—such as from hospital to home, or between different healthcare providers—and discrepancies can occur in their medication lists during these transitions. By performing medication reconciliation, healthcare professionals actively compare the patient's current medications, including any prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs, and supplements, against the medications that the patient has been prescribed previously or that they are currently taking. This process helps to identify and resolve any discrepancies, prevents medication errors, and enhances patient safety by ensuring that the patient receives the appropriate medications throughout their care journey.

In contrast, simply prescribing new medications without consulting the patient or replacing old medications with new ones automatically would neglect the crucial validation and communication steps that medication reconciliation entails. Tracking medication adherence through patient interviews is an important aspect of patient care, but it serves a different purpose than reconciliation, which focuses on the accuracy and completeness of the medication list itself.