What is the main purpose of medication reconciliation?

The main purpose of medication reconciliation is to ensure that patients receive the correct medications during transitions in care. This process involves comparing a patient's current medication orders to all of the medications that the patient has been taking. The goal is to detect and rectify any discrepancies, prevent medication errors, and enhance patient safety. Transition points can include situations like hospital admissions, discharges, and transfers between care settings.

Ensuring that patients are on the right medications at these critical points helps to avoid issues such as omissions, duplications, dosing errors, and interactions that could adversely affect patient outcomes. This practice is essential in providing continuity of care and is a key responsibility of healthcare providers, particularly pharmacists, in managing patient therapy.

The other options do not accurately capture this primary function. For instance, increasing the price of medications does not contribute to patient safety or care quality and is not a goal of medication reconciliation. Removing duplicate medications from inventory addresses inventory management rather than directly impacting patient care during transitions. Similarly, recommending alternative medications is related to therapy optimization, but it does not encompass the broader goal of verifying and reconciling a patient's full medication list during care transitions.