Abstract
BackgroundHospital stay represents the opportunity for a change of therapy, about which patients may not know indications, contraindications, and mode of administration, which may lead to dosing errors, drug interactions, side effects, etc. It is therefore vital to communicate appropriate information to the discharged patient with a new prescription drug. The purpose of the study was to evaluate: 1) how communication about new chronic therapies is managed at hospital discharge and what kind of information is provided to patients; 2) to what extent patients are aware and confident in the management of these medications; 3) whether the way communication is provided affects patients’ awareness and self-confidence in the management of these therapies.MethodsParticipants were adult patients who were prescribed at least one new chronic medication at hospital discharge. A telephone interview after hospital discharge was performed to assess whether or not hospital healthcare personnel had given information about prescribed therapies and which aspects of therapies had been object of information.ResultsFive hundred thirty patients were interviewed. 67.7% reported having received counseling by the hospital physician, while 32.3% by discharge form. Basic information on treatment was provided to the great majority of patients, whereas only few patients reported to have been informed about eventual side effects and related behavior in case of side effects.ConclusionsSeveral aspects of patients’ knowledge and self-confidence on long term medications prescribed at hospital discharge need to be improved and the way communication is provided has a crucial role in the empowerment of patients in the management of these medications.
Highlights
Hospital stay represents the opportunity for a change of therapy, about which patients may not know indications, contraindications, and mode of administration, which may lead to dosing errors, drug interactions, side effects, etc
The purposes of the study were to evaluate: 1) how communication about new chronic therapies is managed at hospital discharge and what kind of information is provided to patients; 2) to what extent patients are aware and confident in the management of these medications; 3) whether the way communication is provided affects patients’ awareness and self confidence in the management of these therapies
The first research question investigated how communication about new chronic therapies is managed at hospital discharge and what kind of information is provided to patients and the results revealed that there are only two ways information is provided: direct counselling by the hospital physician in about two thirds of patients and from the discharge form in the remaining cases
Summary
Hospital stay represents the opportunity for a change of therapy, about which patients may not know indications, contraindications, and mode of administration, which may lead to dosing errors, drug interactions, side effects, etc. Chronic conditions are health problems that require ongoing management over a period of years or decades, and cover a wide range of conditions that go beyond the conventional definition of chronic illness, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases or diabetes. They extend to some persistent communicable diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS), to certain mental disorders (e.g. depression), and to cancer [1]. The common theme of chronic illness is that these conditions require complex models of care, over an extended time period that involves coordinated inputs from a wide range of health professionals. It was based on the premise that high-quality chronic care is characterized by productive interactions between the practice team and patients, involving assessment, self-management support, optimization of therapy and follow-up
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