None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
To investigate the impact of a pre-discharge medication review by a hospital clinical pharmacist on 'at-risk' patients' health and quality of life.
Interventions
Study subjects will receive a pre-discharge medication review (PreDMR) by the hospital clinical pharmacist. This meeting with the patient will occur during the hospital stay. The report will be faxed/emailed to the patient's GP within 72 hours of discharge. At day 7, day 90 and 180 post discharge the study patients will receive a phone call from the clinical pharmacist. The intention of the phone call is to assess patient compliance with prescribed medications. Compliance will be cross checked w
Study subjects will receive a pre-discharge medication review (PreDMR) by the hospital clinical pharmacist. This meeting with the patient will occur during the hospital stay. The report will be faxed/emailed to the patient's GP within 72 hours of discharge. At day 7, day 90 and 180 post discharge the study patients will receive a phone call from the clinical pharmacist. The intention of the phone call is to assess patient compliance with prescribed medications. Compliance will be cross checked with the dispensary history from the patient's community pharmacy. Both the GP and the study patient will also receive a Likert style questionnaire designed to assess the utility and acceptability of the clinical report and follow-up contacts. QoL will also be assessed on day 7, day 90 and 180 post discharge. Control subjects will receive the same best practice care as the study subjects but their GP will not receive a PreDMR.
Sponsors
University of Tasmania
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
The recruitment of eligible patients will be predicated upon the risk assessment tool as described by Angley and co-workers. Patients were stratified as being at ‘high’ or ‘low’ risk of medication misadventure using a stratification instrument adapted from the Victorian Medication Alert Project and The Alfred Hospital Outreach Medication Review program. Patients who scored more than 5 points were at ‘high’ risk of medication misadventure. They will be invited to join the study or control cohorts. The risk weighting per question is outlined in the attached file. Score per question ranges from 1 to 5. Angley M, Pooniah A, Bong J., Padhye V, Shakib S, Spurling L. Implementing and evaluating a parallel post-discharge Home Medicines Review (HMR) model: Pharmacy Guild of Australia; 2011.
Exclusion criteria
1. Patients will be excluded if they are to be discharged into an aged care facility (ACF), since each ACF has, under the Medicare provisions, a contracted consultant pharmacist who performs medication reviews within the ACF setting. 2. Patients will be excluded if they live outside of the Greater Sydney area, interstate (or further). 3. Patients will be excluded if they are unable agree to a medication review and the follow-up phone contact within the timeframe as set out for this study. 4. Patients will be excluded if there is an obvious language barrier which cannot be resolved with the aid of a family member.
Outcome results
None listed