Study of Hospital and Community Pharmacist Collaboration To Improve Medication Safety After Hospital Discharge For Adult Patients on Multiple Medications

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate the effects of improved teamwork between hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists during the hospital discharge process. It focuses on adult patients admitted to an internal medicine ward who take seven or more medications and are discharged to their home. The study investigates whether this enhanced collaboration can reduce the number of drug-related problems encountered by community pharmacists with discharge prescriptions compared to usual care. The study has two groups one receiving standard care where physicians handle medication reconciliation and patients receive prescriptions directly, and an intervention group where hospital pharmacists actively support medication management. This includes contacting community pharmacies before discharge to order specific medications, performing medication reconciliation with hospital physicians, sending discharge prescriptions to community pharmacies, and providing additional patient and prescription information. Participants will continue their usual routine by going to their regular community pharmacy after discharge. Researchers will assess the number of drug-related issues seven days post-discharge, patient satisfaction at the same time, community pharmacists satisfaction over six months, and hospital readmission rates within 30 days. The study involves monitoring and collecting information through these measures to understand the impact of the pharmacist collaboration on medication safety and patient care.

Evaluation of the Impact of a Collaboration Between Hospital and Community Pharmacists at Hospital Discharge