This study evaluates the effect of performing medicines reconciliation on patients admitted to an intensive care unit. Half of the patients will receive a medicines reconciliation at the intensive care unit. The other half will not. All included patients will receive medicines reconciliation after transfer to the ward.
Transfer of patients from one level of care to another is known to increase the risk of medication errors. Medication reconciliation is an accepted intervention to increase the knowledge on the patients medication use, thus reducing the risk of avoidable medication errors. For patients in the intensive care unit treatment of the imminent threat is obviously the most important. Nevertheless, knowledge about previous medications are important.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
50
Medication reconciliation performed according to Integrated Medicines Management model
Medication reconciliation performed according to Integrated Medicines Management model
Akershus university Hospital
Lørenskog, Akershus, Norway
RECRUITINGNumber of patients with at least one discrepancy between medications listed on hospital chart and medications used at home before hospital admittance
Medications listed on the medication chart were recorded on a predefined form, this included information on dosage form, strength, dosage and administration time for each drug. The pharmacist performed medicines reconciliation either by interviewing the patient or by gathering information from other sources as the patient's general practitioner, next-to-kin or if relevant nursing home. Any deviations between the information from the medication chart and information obtained during medicines reconciliation was defined as a discrepancy.
Time frame: Medicines reconciliation is performed at randomisation and within 48 hours after transmission to the ward, assessed up to 28 days after randomisation
Retrospective evaluation on the clinical relevance of the observed medical discrepancies
One clinical pharmacist and one senior geriatrician retrospectively asses the potential clinical relevance of the registered discrepancies. The expert panel use the following information for each patient when assessing the clinical relevance: medication list before and after reconciliation, age, gender, reason for hospitalisation, former and current diseases and the level of care before admission
Time frame: Retrospectively, based on the information gathered from the day of randomisation up until 28 days after randomisation
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.