Patients' knowledge of new medicines after discharge from hospital: What are the effects of hospital-based discharge counseling and community-based medicines use reviews (MURs)?

Abstract

CitationElson R, Cook H and Blenkinsopp A (2017) Patients' knowledge of new medicines after discharge from hospital: What are the effects of hospital-based discharge counseling and communitybased medicines use reviews (MURs) medicines use after discharge from hospital. However little research has studied how this resource might be targeted.?In this study, patients were surveyed after discharge from hospital to determine their knowledge and understanding of newly-prescribed medication. Patients received either usual care (nurse counselling at discharge) or pharmacist counselling.The patients who received pharmacist counselling knew more about their new medicines.The study findings could help to more effectively target hospital pharmacist resource.Community pharmacist input was under-utilised and the study provides insights into the reasons for this. Abstract AimTo determine the effects of targeted hospital pharmacist counselling on discharge or targeted community pharmacy medicines reviews post-discharge on patients' knowledge of newly started medication. MethodControlled trial of targeted medicines discharge counselling provided by hospital pharmacists or follow-up post-discharge medicines review provided by community pharmacists compared with usual care (nurse counselling). Outcomes measured using a structured telephone survey conducted at two and four weeks after patients were discharged from hospital. ResultsPatients who received hospital pharmacist counselling were significantly more likely to report being told the purpose of their new medicine and how to take it than those receiving usual care. Fewer than half of the patients who were allocated to receive a community pharmacy medicines review did receive one. ConclusionThe study results indicate that patient knowledge of medicines newly prescribed in hospital is increased by targeted counselling by hospital pharmacists. The findings also suggest the need to improve the consistency of the information covered when providing counselling, perhaps by the implementation of a counselling checklist for use by all disciplines of staff involved in patient counselling. The potential of community pharmacy follow-up medicines reviews is currently undermined by several barriers to uptake.

Community pharmacist led medication reviews in the UK: A scoping review of the medicines use review and the new medicine service literatures

“…The characteristics of the 41 MUR and NMS papers are described in Tables 1-5. Few studies employed an RCT or quasi-experimental design: one study (two papers examining effectiveness and cost-effectiveness) was an RCT 21,22 , one was a small (randomised) feasibility study 23 , and another recruited a non-randomised control group 24 . Three papers exclusively examined secondary data from pharmacy records [25][26][27] .…”

A systematic review examining the effectiveness of medicines information services for patients and the general public

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Findings indicate that patients often lack knowledge about their medications following hospital discharge [14][15][16][17][18] and that many patients report not receiving important medicines-related information. [19][20][21] World Health Organisation policy states that offering information on medicines via Medicines Information Centres, and providing public education about medicines, are two of 12 essential interventions to promote the rational use of medicines. [22] Therefore, medicines information (MI) services have been established in many countries to support patients and the general public with their medicines.…”

Operating a patient medicines helpline: a survey study exploring current practice in England using the RE-AIM evaluation framework

“…They found that 36% of patients experienced problems with their medication following discharge, particularly around side effects (63%), and that 26% had actually sought or been given help following discharge, mainly from their general practitioner. Relatedly, UK and international research also show that patients often lack knowledge of their medications following discharge from hospital, particularly around side effects [ 8 – 13 ], and that many patients report not receiving important medicines-related information [ 14 – 16 ]. Results from the 2017 UK National Health Service (NHS) Adult Inpatient Survey found that 30% of 46,795 patients reported that they were not provided with completely clear written or printed information about their medicines, and 43% of 43,719 patients did not recall receiving any information from staff about side effects to look out for when they returned home [ 17 ].…”