Background: Medication reconciliation is one of the most time-consuming processes in hospital medicine. An internal survey within our Division of Hospital Medicine found that 69.9% of providers strongly agree that thorough medication reconciliation is essential to patient care. Despite its importance, the process remains highly time intensive, with 26% of providers spending 15-20 minutes per patient, 26.1% spending 20-30 minutes, and 17.4% spending more than 30 minutes. Furthermore, 73.9% of providers strongly agreed they would have more time to complete other clinical tasks if medication reconciliation were delegated to other qualified team members such as pharmacists or pharmacy technicians. At our institution, only 49.4% of admission medication reconciliations are completed within 24 hours, highlighting both workflow inefficiencies and patient safety risks.
Purpose: To improve admission medication reconciliation completion by integrating pharmacy technicians into the admission workflow, thereby reducing provider time spent collecting medication histories.
Description: We developed an internal Medication History curriculum aligned with the Pharmacy Technician Credentialing Board (PTCB), the national credentialing body for pharmacy technicians. The PTCB requires technicians to complete supervised medication history collection to be eligible for certification. Our pilot program enrolled four pharmacy technicians in a blended curriculum combining online education with structured inpatient rotations. During these rotations, technicians performed real-time medication history collection under the supervision of a pharmacist. Integration into the admission workflow provided structured clinical experience through direct patient interaction. Upon completion of the program, participants became eligible for national PTCB certification in Medication History.Preliminary outcomes of our program indicate meaningful progress. In August, prior to technician integration, 49.4% of admission medication reconciliations were completed within 24 hours. After integration, completion rates improved to 52.9% in September and 54.1% in October. Pharmacy technicians spent an average of 97 minutes per medication history in October, reflecting the early learning phase of the program. Initially, technicians completed a limited number of medication histories to build proficiency, resulting in longer completion times per encounter. Early results indicate steady improvement in the timeliness of admission medication reconciliation. The program demonstrates the impact of integrating trained pharmacy technicians into the admission workflow through a structured education model.
Conclusions: This program increases the number of medication reconciliations completed on admission while optimizing medication history collection. It provides professional development opportunities for pharmacy technicians. Our education model leverages internal talent to combine workforce development with quality improvement. It is scalable, requires no major technological changes, and is adaptable to other hospital settings. Overall, this initiative provides a practical solution to enhance medication reconciliation completion while supporting workforce growth.
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