BJ week 6 part 2

Technology Integration- Part 1: Gap Analysis Presentation

Beverly Jordan

Herzing University

NU725 Technology and Nursing Informatics in Advanced Practice

Dr. Kimberly Burks

10/06/2025

Speaker Notes

Slide 2

Medication reconciliation plays a vital role in promoting patient safety during care transitions. However, many healthcare organizations still rely on manual and inconsistent methods that increase the likelihood of medication errors, adverse drug events, and communication breakdowns among providers. This gap analysis identifies inefficiencies in the current manual medication reconciliation process and explores the benefits of implementing an Electronic Health Record (EHR)-based solution. The proposed system aims to improve accuracy, efficiency, and overall patient outcomes by integrating real-time, interoperable medication data and enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration.

Slide 3

The main goal of using an EHR-based medication reconciliation solution is to enhance patient safety across transitions in care by having accurate and complete medication lists. Adverse drug events remain a leading cause of preventable harm in hospitals today. This technology allows clinicians to make the process easier, minimize errors, and save time. Interdisciplinary communication is improved because physicians, nurses, and pharmacists share the same up-to-date information. Moreover, the integration complies with best practice recommendations from the WHO patient safety goals and The Joint Commission, becoming efficient and regulatory compliant for health institutions. 

Slide 4

Medication reconciliation is mainly manual and is subject to errors and inefficiencies. Hospitals rely on patient recollection, handwritten records, and disjointed documentation systems that frequently leave out significant information. A lack of real-time interoperability of hospital, outpatient, and pharmacy systems implies that data must be reconciled manually with providers, increasing workload and risk. Frequent duplication and omission of medication lists expose the patient to avoidable harm (Ciudad-Gutiérrez et al., 2025). Besides, it is very time-intensive, with variability in provider involvement, resulting in uneven outcomes in patient care and a lowered level of confidence in the safety of care transitions overall.

Slide 5

The targeted future state consists of the complete integration and interoperability of the medication reconciliation system in the EHR, enabling providers to obtain correct and real-time medication information across various sources. It would automatically retrieve information in pharmacies, outpatient visits, and previous hospitalizations, so it would not rely on manual entries (Rittenberge et al., 2022). Inbuilt clinical decision support would provide notifications in case of drug-drug interactions, allergies, or redundancy. These automation characteristics would save the staff time to work on more patients. Finally, this will result in a safer process, fewer errors, reduced hospital readmissions, and patients will have confidence in the reliability and consistency of their drug control in any environment.

Slide 6

The difference is between the present time manual and error-prone system and the sought-after automated system and integration. Paperwork generates inefficiency and frustrates the providers, and risks adverse drug events. Transitions do not provide real-time access to complete and accurate medication information to healthcare teams, often leading to ineffective communication and unsafe patient discharge. In addition, patients must rely on confusing or ambiguous instructions, which can result in nonadherence and adverse outcomes (Rittenberge et al., 2022). Such a gap demonstrates the need for a simplified system to connect data within care environments to provide medication accuracy, reduce errors, and promote patient-centered and safe care delivery.

Slide 7

The recommended solution is an EHR-based medication reconciliation tool that automatically integrates pharmacy, clinic, and hospital-based data. Staff training on the tool would be provided, and workflows would be standardized to facilitate consistency (Guo et al., 2021). The system would also comprise a clinical alert, actively detecting discrepancies and improving provider decision-making. Collaboration in preventing medication errors will be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration between nurses, pharmacists, and physicians through shared responsibility.

Slide 8

This needs coordinated efforts by the key stakeholders to implement. Daily reconciliation will be organized by nurses, pharmacists, and physicians with the assistance of IT specialists, connecting the EHR tool to the working processes. After a six-month pilot program, the intervention will be fully implemented in a year. Piloting will first be done in inpatient units where care transitions are the most threatening, then expanded throughout the organization (Rittenberge et al., 2022). The reason why it should be adopted is simple: to make patients safer, avoid unnecessary damage, and become more efficient. This systematic process will make the transition process efficient, sustainable, and consistent with the hospital’s mission to provide safe, high-quality care.

Slide 9

The last slide emphasizes the whole range of the gap analysis. The present condition is manual and fragmented reconciliation, whereas the desired condition is an automated and interoperable EHR system. The gap encompasses inefficiencies, lack of communication, and threats of adverse events (Guo et al., 2021). The suggested solution to bridge this divide includes EHR integration, staff training, and interdisciplinary responsibility. It is hoped that there would be a considerable enhancement in accuracy, efficiency, and patient safety, leading to a decrease in medication errors and readmissions. Offering the entire continuum of choices enables the stakeholders to see the problem and understand the real-life rewards of the suggested intervention.

Slide 10

Bridging the gap between the current manual medication reconciliation process and a fully integrated EHR-based system is essential for ensuring safe, high-quality patient care. Implementing automated reconciliation supported by clinical decision tools and interdisciplinary collaboration will reduce errors, streamline workflows, and foster greater confidence in care transitions. Through structured training, pilot testing, and system-wide adoption, healthcare organizations can achieve improved medication accuracy, enhanced communication, and a culture of safety that aligns with best practice standards and patient-centered goals.

References

Ciudad-Gutiérrez, P., Suárez-Casillas, P., Guisado-Gil, A. B., Acosta-García, H. L., Campano-Pérez, I. L., Ramírez-Duque, N., & Alfaro-Lara, E. R. (2025, March). Implementation and User Satisfaction Analysis of an Electronic Medication Reconciliation Tool (ConciliaMed) in Patients Undergoing Elective Colorectal Surgery. In Healthcare (Vol. 13, No. 7, p. 778). MDPI.

Guo, A., Beheshti, R., Khan, Y. M., Langabeer, J. R., & Foraker, R. E. (2021). Predicting cardiovascular health trajectories in time-series electronic health records with LSTM models. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 21(1), 5.

Rittenberg, E., Liebman, J. B., & Rexrode, K. M. (2022). Primary care physician gender and electronic health record workload. Journal of general internal medicine, 37(13), 3295–3301.