Cross?sectional survey of patients’ need for information and support with medicines after discharge from hospital

Background: Most patients experience changes to prescribed medicines during a hospital stay. Ensuring they understand such changes is important for preventing adverse events post-discharge and optimising patient understanding. However, little work has explored the information that patients receive about medicines or their perceived needs for information and support after discharge.

Aim: To determine information that hospital in-patients who experience medicines changes receive about their medicines during admission and their needs and preferences for, and use of, post-discharge support.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey with adult medical in-patients experiencing medicines changes in six English hospitals, with telephone follow-up 2-3 weeks post-discharge.

Results: A total of 444 in-patients completed surveys and 99 of these were followed-up post-discharge. Of the 444, 44 (10%) were unaware of changes to medicines and 65 (16%) did not recall discussing them with a health professional, but 305 (77%) reported understanding the changes. Type of information provided and patients’ perceived need for post-discharge support differed between hospitals. Information about changes was most frequently provided by consultant medical staff (157; 39%) with pharmacists providing information least often (71; 17%). One-third of patients surveyed considered community pharmacists as potential sources of information about medicines and associated support post-discharge. Post-discharge, just 5% had spoken to a pharmacist, although 35% reported medicines-related problems.

Conclusion: In North-West England, patient inclusion in treatment decisions could be improved, but provision of information prior to discharge is reasonable. There is scope to develop hospital and community pharmacists’ role in medicines optimisation to maximise safety and effectiveness of care.