A multi-centre study improving the quality of medicines reconciliation

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    A multi-centre study improving the quality of medicines reconciliation- Stage 1 Interviews with patients and healthcare professionals

  • IRAS ID

    223224

  • Contact name

    Neil Hamilton

  • Contact email

    neil.hamilton@sth.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    IRAS145, University of Bradford Internal Review reference

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 4 months, 17 days

  • Research summary

    The research is looking into medicines reconciliation at admission and how we can work to improve this. Medicines reconciliation is the process by which healthcare staff can correctly identify and prescribe a patient’s medication that they were taking before they came into hospital.
    This is usually done when patients are admitted into hospital as well as at other points during their stay in hospital and when they go home. The project is looking at this process specifically at the point of being admitted into hospital. If medications are missed or incorrectly prescribed, it could affect a patient in many ways.
    This process, if done effectively, can work to help aid diagnosis, reduce the time a patient stays in hospital, as well as reducing further hospital visits. Overall, it works to improve patient safety. The research is looking at how this is done at the moment and if we can find ways to make the process even better.
    The project aims not only look at what the evidence says, but will also look to understand the experiences of patients and the staff on the admissions wards. This will help to develop a way in which we can make medicines reconciliation more effective in hospitals.
    The study will be conducted in three stages but this application is specific to stage 1 of the study:
    Stage 1: Interviews with patients and staff working on admissions wards to gain understanding of their experiences and ideas for making this process better. The interviews will be conducted at four different hospitals to allow a range of experiences to be collated and analysed.
    Once we have the ideas and experiences of patients and staff working on admissions wards, we can use this information to help design an intervention which can help us improve the process in UK Trusts.

  • REC name

    Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    17/YH/0350

  • Date of REC Opinion

    11 Oct 2017

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion