Why the study?
Does a home visit compared to telephone follow-up improve the detection of medication discrepancies in chronically ill medical patients post-discharge?
Does a home visit compared to telephone follow-up improve the detection of medication discrepancies in chronically ill medical patients post-discharge?
Home visits by nurses are more effective than telephone follow-ups for identifying medication discrepancies in chronically ill patients after hospital discharge.
Should not yet change post-discharge protocols; hypothesis-generating pilot finding requiring larger confirmatory trials.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate a transitional care intervention posthospital discharge for chronically ill medical patients managing complex medication regimens. This descriptive pilot study tested 2 interventions: telephone follow-up and a home visit. Registered nurses delivered the interventions with consulting pharmacist support. Findings included 62% more medication discrepancies discovered during home visit than detected by telephone interview. This brief intervention identified significant knowledge gaps in self-management of discharge medications in the inner city population.
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Costa et al. (2011) studied this question.
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