The period following discharge from the hospital is a vulnerable time for patients.About half of adults experience a medical error after hospital discharge, and 19%-23% suffer an adverse event, most commonly an adverse drug event. This article reviews several important challenges to providing high-quality care as patients leave the hospital. These include the discontinuity between hospitalists and primary care physicians, changes to the medication regimen, new self-care responsibilities that may stress available resources, and complex discharge instructions. We also discuss approaches to promoting more effective transitions of care,

Using pharmacists to identify and address patient barriers to adherence resulted in a significant increase in PDC among patients with hypertension and diabetes. The DRAW tool can be used in a community pharmacist-delivered telephonic intervention to improve medication adherence.