Heart Failure
Conditions
Keywords
Heart Failure, Medication Therapy Management
Brief summary
Readmission to a hospital shortly after discharge is a common and costly problem. In the United States patients with a diagnosis of heart failure currently experience an elevated 30 day readmission rate of approximately 20%. By providing patients with medication related counseling at discharge by a pharmacist, home medications at discharge, and seeing the patient again in a pharmacist-run Medication Therapy Management (MTM) clinic 7 days after discharge, the study anticipates achieving its primary goal of showing a reduction in the readmission rate. Secondary goals are: 1) to determine patients understanding of the medication they are taking, 2) to evaluate satisfaction with the comprehensive discharge counseling service, and 3) determine the number of interventions made and benefit of the MTM clinic.
Detailed description
The active arm of this study (medication related hospital discharge counseling by a pharmacist, home medications, and 7 day follow-up visit at a pharmacist run MTM clinic) is available to all subjects. To study the primary goal of reducing the 30 day readmission rate the data obtained from the active arm subjects will be compared to a match group of hospitalized patients that were previously discharged with a diagnosis of heart failure. The data for all secondary study goals will be obtained directly from the active arm subjects.
Interventions
OTHERDischarge medication counseling from a pharmacist
Patient will be educated about proper dosing instructions, potential side effects, and when to recontact the treating physician office.
OTHERHome medication if needed
Patient will be provided with medication to take home, when needed.
OTHERFollow-up visit at Medication Therapy Management clinic
This comprehensive Medication Therapy Management clinic follow-up visit is scheduled for 7 days post hospital discharge. The approximately 1 hour visit is scheduled with a pharmacist to review current drug therapy and make recommendations, if needed, to improve medication utilization.
Sponsors
Providence Health & Services
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Heart Failure with high risk for readmission. * Enroll in study prior to hospital discharge.
Exclusion criteria
\-
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Reduction in hospital readmissions | 30 day | The readmission rate for the 50 subjects involved in this study will be compared to an equal number patients retrospectively reviewed from a 2011 patient list and matched for heart failure severity. The primary outcome will based on a comparison of the ratio of patients readmitted to the hospital before the discharge instruction program started and after. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Patient assessment of home medications knowledge at time of hospital discharge | 3 days | Post hospital discharge the subject are asked to rate their knowledge regarding the medication they are taking at home on a scale of 1 to 10. The data obtained in this study will be compared to the same data and patient matched population obtained in 2011. |
| Patient satisfaction with comprehensive discharge counseling service. | 7 Days | The satisfaction survey consists of five interview questions, where the subject subjectively scores each question on a scale of 1 to 10, developed specifically for this study. |
| Number of interventions made at the MTM clinic. | 7 Days. | The number of drug related therapy interventions the pharmacist makes during the 7 day follow-up visit will be counted. Interventions may include: identifying: an inappropriate drug, inappropriate dose, duplication of medications, or a missing medication to optimize drug therapy. |
| Types of interventions made at the MTM clinic. | 7 days | The types of intervention the pharmacist may work on during the 7 day follow-up visit include inappropriate drug, inappropriate dose, duplication of medications, missing medication to optimize drug therapy. Other types of interventions may be revealed during this study. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed