An estimated 70% of patients have errors in their medication lists at hospital admission or discharge—and often have 5 to 7 errors at once. The consequences are profound, and include everything from adverse drug events, increased readmission rates, and increased length of stay to excess drug spending.

Medication reconciliation is designed to prevent these errors from occurring in the first place. However, the process has historically been viewed by many executives and frontline staff as a task to complete, rather than a patient safety imperative, and as such, is often poorly understood and under-resourced.