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In This Issue:
Medication Reconciliation Reconciling medications is a process to ensure that every patient has a medication history that is recorded and reviewed with the patient and caregiver. BWH is participating in a Partners-wide process to capture electronically a patient's medication history for clinicians to verify with the patient and reconcile with any prescribed medications upon admission, transfer and discharge. BWH is conducting pilots, and intends to roll out a working process in May. During the pilots, the process intercepted 11 discrepancies between the patients' home medication list and admission or discharge orders.
Rapid Response Teams The Rapid Response Team (RRT) is designed to guarantee an immediate response to a failing patient, foster earlier recognition of a failing patient and assess and treat that patient quickly. The RRT consists of an ICU STAT nurse, respiratory therapist and primary physician team. When a patient demonstrates failing vital signs or other clinical indicators, a text page is sent to the team, which understands that the page warrants an immediate bedside response. A pilot began in December on Tower 14 and is still underway. To date, the team has responded to more than 50 calls. Data are being analyzed to determine whether the process should be implemented in other areas.