Medication discrepancies between patients'medication lists across different health care sites are common for patients transitioning from hospital to community care, jeopardizing their safety and increasing their risk of costly rehospitalizations. Previous research has focused on patients'medication consistency between hospital and community physicians to identify where, why, and what types of medication discrepancies occur post-hospitalization but not at community pharmacies where patients commonly fill their medications after discharge. The primary aim of this study is to examine patients'medication list consistency at their community pharmacy when a patient transfers from the hospital into community care.
The specific aims are to: (1) examine the agreement of medication lists by comparing a patient's hospital discharge medication list with a patient's community pharmacy medication list(s) and community physician medication list(s) within two weeks of discharge, (1a) categorize the types of medication discrepancies occurring at community pharmacies, (2) describe the barriers and challenges community pharmacists face when reconciling medications for patients discharged from the hospital, and (2a) identify pharmacists'preferred content and modes of information transfer regarding updated medication lists when a patient is discharged from the hospital.
For Aims 1 and 1a, patients will be recruited from the University of Wisconsin Hospital Clinics, and their medication lists will be obtained from their hospital discharge, community pharmacy, and community physicians. Medication lists will be compared and discrepancies will be identified. An overall medication discrepancy rate will be calculated along with rates of individual medication discrepancy categories.
For Aims 2 and 2a, a small sample of community pharmacists will be interviewed, drawing on constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior to describe the barriers and challenges they face reconciling medications. They will also be asked what they need to reconcile medications for recently discharge patients. Thematic analysis will be used to qualitatively analyze all pharmacist interview data. This study is directly related to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) priority strategic goal of increasing patient safety and health care quality by examining medication discrepancies when patients transition from hospital to community care.
Medication discrepancies between patients'medication lists across different health care sites are common for patients transitioning from hospital to community care, jeopardizing their safety and increasing their risk of costly rehospitalizations. This study seeks to examine where, why, and what types of medication discrepancies occur when patients transfer from the hospital into community care, particularly at the community pharmacy. Results from this study will help future interventional studies to develop and evaluate communication tools to provide timely and complete medication data to community pharmacies and physicians.
