OBJECTIVES: To enhance the medication quality of the general public, as well as helping physicians and pharmacists safeguard medication safety, the National Health Insurance Administration of Taiwan adopted the cloud technology in 2013 to set up the patient-centered “NHI PharmaCloud System.” The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of PharmaCloud and pharmacists in the medication reconciliation. This work also quantified discrepancies found by pharmacists when comparing the medication history to information collected by other health care providers at the studied orthopedic admission.

METHODS: Patients were divided into two groups when they admitted for medical care. In one group, pharmacists surveyed the patients to complete a thorough medication history and reconciled discrepancies found at orthopedics admission. In the other group, pharmacists also accessed the cloud databank in addition to conducting the survey. We then compared the discrepancies between these two groups, which included incorrect medication, dose, route, frequency, omitted information, missing medications, or any other inconsistencies outside of these categories.

RESULTS: As of now, we have interviewed 65 patients. The average age was 72 with a standard deviation of 10.6 years. Among the patient population, 37% of them were men and 63% were women, and 43% of the patients were in the group with both cloud access and survey interview. For those with regular visits, 50% of them go the hospital in this study, while others have visits to multiple facilities. The group with cloud access showed: cloud has average of 6.9±2.4 item, pharmacists interview 7.4±2.6 items and physician interview 4.5±3.0 items per patient. The interview only group showed: pharmacists interview 7.3±2.8 items and physician interview 4.2±3.2 items.

CONCLUSIONS; Our results prove that PharmaCloud and pharmacist admission medication reconciliation has positive impact on patient care.