Journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
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Review Meta Analysis
Pharmacy-led medication reconciliation programmes at hospital transitions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Medication reconciliation is recognized as an important tool for the prevention of medication discrepancies and subsequent patient harm at care transitions. However, there is inconclusive evidence as to the impact of medication reconciliation at hospital transitions overall, as well as pharmacy-led medication reconciliation services. This review sought to evaluate the impact of pharmacy-led medication reconciliation interventions on medication discrepancies at hospital transitions and to categorize these interventions as single transition interventions or multiple transitions interventions. ⋯ Pharmacy-led medication reconciliation interventions were found to be an effective strategy to reduce medication discrepancies, and had a greater impact when conducted at either admission or discharge but were less effective during multiple transitions in care. Further studies that are designed to assess the impact of the involvement of pharmacy technicians in medication reconciliation are also needed.
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STOPP/START are explicit screening tools that identify potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults. Our objective was to update our 2013 systematic review that showed limited evidence of impact, using new evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes in older adults. ⋯ STOPP/START may be effective in improving prescribing quality, clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes. Additional research investigating these tools is needed, especially in frail elderly and community-living patients receiving primary care.