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Universal medication form puts patient safety in hands of patients

Accreditation Connection, September 5, 2005

A universal medication form has made its way through the hospitals in the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA).

The form gives patients a familiar sheet on which to keep track all of their medications. The two-sided form has space for a patient's personal information, emergency contact, immunization record, and allergies and an area to list patient medications, doses, indications, start and stop dates, and the reason for taking the medication.

The back side of the form gives patients information about when to update the chart, what information to write down, and a reminder to share the list with physicians, pharmacists, and hospital staff.

State hospitals have also begun using a standard reconciliation form. Taken together, the forms provide South Carolinian patients and caregivers a consistent method for tracking medications.

After a year into the project, there's little collected data, but what has been observed has been encouraging, says Karen Reeves, RN, MHA, SCHA vice president and American Health Association fellow.

"The data thus far indicate [the universal medication form] was extremely effective in reducing medication errors," says Reeves. "The return of patients with universal medication forms to hospitals was something like 28%. It's pretty phenomenal."

Adapted from the September issue of Briefings on Patient Safety

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