What should be the clinician's next step when a CCDA's medication data conflicts with the receiving chart?

• A. Initiate data reconciliation, verify with the source system, and annotate for clinician review; prefer the most recent authoritative data.
• B. Delete the conflicting data.
• C. Automatically overwrite the receiving chart.
• D. Ignore the discrepancy.

Answer: (A)

When medication data conflicts between a CCDA and the receiving chart, the clinician should start a reconciliation process: verify the information with the source system, annotate the chart for clinician review, and use the most recent authoritative data. This approach preserves data accuracy and patient safety by tracing data back to its origin and making the clinician aware of the discrepancy and the rationale for the chosen data. Automatically overwriting or deleting data can erase correct information or introduce errors, and ignoring the discrepancy leaves the potential for adverse drug events. In practice, compare the medication lists, determine which record reflects the current, authoritative prescription or discharge meds, update the receiving chart accordingly, and clearly document the reconciliation so future users understand what was changed and why.