The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7198 p694-696
18 May 2002

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European Society of Clinical Pharmacy summary

Medication form keeps patients out of hospital

Using a standardised document to send information from hospitals to community health professionals increases time to readmission, said Dr CATHERINE DUGGAN, academic department of pharmacy, Barts and The Royal London NHS Trust, London. This was the preliminary result from an ongoing trial that involved patients being given a standardised document of drug-related information to give to their community pharmacist and general practitioner.

To date, 300 general medical patients have been recruited to the study. Patients are followed up at 30 and 60 days post-discharge. The majority of patients were taking medication for chronic conditions (88 per cent) and changes to medicine regimens have been made for 38 per cent of patients.

Data indicate that 88 per cent of documents given to patients were taken to community pharmacies. This would improve if data could be transferred electronically, Dr Duggan added.

Although the number of patients recruited so far is too small to show a significant difference in the proportion of patients who were readmitted to hospital, a trend showing that patients who were given the documentation had an increased time to readmission. A trend towards longer time to first GP visit post-discharge was also observed. "This indicates that giving drug information can prevent drug-related problems immediately following discharge from hospital," said Dr Duggan.

The next part of the trial, for which more patients will be recruited, will explore drug-related problems and make recommendations about appropriate documentation.