What practice helps to reduce medication errors before patient discharge?

Providing a list of current medicines is a critical practice in reducing medication errors before patient discharge. This practice ensures that patients have a clear understanding of their medication regimen, including the names, dosages, and purposes of each prescribed medication. It serves several essential functions:

Firstly, it helps to facilitate effective communication between healthcare providers and patients, ensuring that patients can accurately recall and discuss their medications when they leave the facility. This is particularly important as patients often take multiple medications, and discrepancies may exist between hospital and community prescriptions.

Secondly, the medication list can serve as a reference for both patients and healthcare providers, reducing the likelihood of errors related to misunderstanding or miscommunication. Patients are often overwhelmed at discharge, so providing them with a tangible list assists in reinforcing what they need to take, when, and why.

Additionally, the medication list helps to prevent issues such as duplication, omissions, or interaction with other medications that patients might be taking. This proactive approach can significantly enhance the safety and effectiveness of the patient’s treatment plan upon transitioning from hospital to home care.

In contrast, the other practices listed—like hand hygiene training, administering medications without proper assessment, and implementing new care technologies—while they may have their own merits, do not specifically target the