Key result
Pharmacist-led post-discharge calls prove relevant to geriatric patients despite confusion over the pharmacist's role.
Why the study?
Medication-related problems are common during transitions of care and pronounced among geriatric patients, motivating an exploration of participants' views on post-discharge pharmacist follow-up telephone calls.
What are geriatric patients' views on a pharmacist-led telephone follow-up programme after discharge from hospital?
What are geriatric patients' views on a pharmacist-led telephone follow-up programme after discharge from hospital?
Geriatric patients have varying perceptions of pharmacist-led telephone follow-up after hospital discharge, suggesting a need for better explanation of the pharmacist's role and a more person-centered focus.
Highlights need to clarify pharmacist roles in post-discharge calls; extends patient-centered evidence for geriatric programs.
Background: Medication-related problems (MRPs) are common during transitions of care and can lead to hospital readmissions. This patient safety issue is especially pronounced among geriatric patients. In a randomised controlled trial (RCT), the effect of a pharmacist-led follow-up programme after discharge from hospital for people ≥75 years in the north of Sweden was investigated. One of the components in the programme was telephone calls to study participants, to find and manage MRPs. Objective: To explore study participants' views on follow-up telephone calls by a clinical pharmacist in the RCT. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who had received an intervention in the RCT. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Results: In total, nine participants were interviewed. Four main themes were generated: 1. Experiences of the telephone counselling by the clinical pharmacist, 2. Acceptability of receiving telephone follow-up from a clinical pharmacist, 3. Communication with health care providers, and 4. Medication management and views about medications. Conclusions: The study revealed varying perceptions of the clinical pharmacists' telephone calls, with participants expressing diverse experiences and preferences regarding the service. Most participants said they considered the content relevant and comprehensible in the conversations. The effect of the follow-up programme may have improved if the role of the clinical pharmacist had been explained in more detail to the participants and if the service would have had a more person-centred focus. More research is needed regarding how to best support geriatric patients with their medication treatment in transitions of care.
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Svahn et al. (2025) studied Geriatric patients in transition of care (n=9). Pharmacist-led follow-up telephone calls was evaluated on Participants' views on follow-up telephone calls by a clinical pharmacist. Pharmacist-led follow-up telephone calls post-discharge were generally perceived as relevant and comprehensible by geriatric patients, though many lacked clarity regarding the clinical pharmacist's role.
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