Medicines related hospital admissions and medication reviews v.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Medicines related hospital admissions and medication reviews: patient and pharmacist perspectives
IRAS ID
177528
Contact name
Jennifer Veeren
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bath
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
Introduction
Unwanted effects of medicines account for 3.7 – 5.3% of hospital admissions in England. Unnecessary admissions may be due to poor medical care and cost the NHS money. Medicines use reviews (MURs) by pharmacists may reduce medicines related admissions to hospital. However, little has been published about the experiences of patients who have a medicines related hospital admission and who receive a post discharge medication review (PD-MUR) by a pharmacist when they leave hospital. Nor is much known about pharmacists’ views of providing a PD-MUR to patients after discharge from hospital.Aims
To explore the medication experiences of patients who have a medicines related admission to hospital and to examine the attitudes of community pharmacists to post-discharge MURs.Methods
The study will use two different kinds of research methods, with a qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase. The initial qualitative phase will involve interviewing up to 10 in-patients who have had a medicines related admission to hospital about their experiences. Details of their discharge medication will be sent to their community pharmacist to prompt a MUR after discharge. They will be interviewed again within 12 weeks of their hospital discharge about their experiences of all types of medication reviews they have had.
The next phase will involve conducting 4 – 6 interviews with community pharmacists about their attitudes and experiences of PD-MURs. The results of the patient and pharmacist interviews will inform the development of a questionnaire focussing on community pharmacists’ attitudes to PD-MURs. This will be given to approximately 400 community pharmacists in south west England.Analysis
The patient interviews will be analysed to provide an in-depth understanding of what it is like to be a patient in this situation. The community pharmacist questionnaires will be examined to explore the attitudes of the professionals providing the PD-MUR service.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0239
Date of REC Opinion
11 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion