Assessing the knowledge, perception and practices of physicians and pharmacists towards medication reconciliation in Kuwait governmental hospitals: a cross-sectional study

Objectives: To assess the knowledge, perception and practices towards medication reconciliation (MedRec) and its related institutional policies among physicians and pharmacists in governmental hospitals in Kuwait and identifying potential obstacles that prevent the successful implementation of MedRec.

Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Setting: Six governmental hospitals across Kuwait in January-May 2017.

Participants: 351 physicians and 214 pharmacists.

Brief intervention: A self-administered questionnaire distributed to the participants.

Main outcome measures: Knowledge, perception, attitudes and practices of hospital physicians and pharmacists towards MedRec, and major barriers to implementing a MedRec process in their institution/department.

Results: Of the 739 questionnaires distributed, 565 were completed (351 physicians and 214 pharmacists), giving a response rate of 76.5%. Results showed that most participants were familiar with the term MedRec (n=419; 75.2%) with significantly more pharmacists compared with physicians (n=171; 81.8% vs n=248; 71.3%; p=0.005). Most participants (n=432; 80.0%) reported perceiving MedRec as a valuable process for patient safety. However, significantly more physicians compared with pharmacists were aware of a MedRec policy in their institution (n=195; 55.9% vs n=78; 37.9%; p<0.001) and routinely asked patients about their current list of medication on arrival (n=339; 96.6% vs n=129; 61.1%; p<0.001) and provided an updated list on discharge (n=281; 80.1% vs n=107; 52.0%; p<0.001). These results are supported by the findings that participants perceived physicians as providers, mainly responsible for various steps of MedRec.

Conclusions: Overall, this study showed low awareness among physicians and pharmacists of hospital policy despite MedRec being perceived as valuable. Physicians were the providers most responsible and involved in MedRec, who may be driven by the policy putting them at core of the process. The current findings could pave the way for the expansion of the existing MedRec policies and processes in Kuwait to include pharmacists and improve patient safety.