RARA Re-Admission Risk Assessment tool study. Version 1.0 January 2018
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pilot mixed methods study of hospital Re-Admission Risk Assessment (RARA) tool on reducing patients’ hospital readmission rates; and of hospital pharmacists’ perceptions of care transfer.
IRAS ID
243064
Contact name
Stephen Bennett
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
De Montford University, Leicester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
The study intends to improve patients’ quality of life through reducing unnecessary hospital re-admissions due to medications. When patients are discharged home from hospital, sometimes their medications are changed (stopped, started, changes in dosage, or changes in the number of times they are taken). All these changes are written in a patient’s discharge letter, which is given to the patient and a copy is sent to the patient’s GP and community pharmacy. However, evidence suggests that some patients are still being re-admitted back to hospital because of their medications, mainly due to time-delays in acknowledging hospital changes in their medications. Therefore, the study’s aim is to explore if hospital pharmacists’ interventions can reduce patients’ re-admissions for three months. The RARA tool will allow hospital pharmacists to assess patients, who are at risk of re-admissions, and refer them for a pharmacist-led follow-up in the patient’s own home after their hospital discharge.
The study has two parts – quantitative and qualitative:
1. The quantitative part will collect data on hospital re-admissions and will compare re-admission rates without the RARA tool and with the RARA tool.
2. The qualitative part will collect data from open questionnaires completed by hospital pharmacists, who will give consent to participate. The questionnaires will focus on exploring pharmacists’ experience with the RARA tool and with patients’ discharge process and care transfer. The risk to study participants (hospital pharmacists) is minimal in form of inconvenience regarding spending time completing questionnaires.Research and Development and Ethics approvals from regulatory bodies are sought for this study prior to its initiation.The study is a student research with the aim of obtaining academic award (MSc Clinical Pharmacy).
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0112
Date of REC Opinion
5 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion