Medication discharge consultation program in a small community hospital.
The development of a medication discharge consultation program in a 113-bed, acute-care hospital is described. Patients with cardiac or hypertensive disease who are being treated with at least three medications are counseled by a pharmacist at the time of discharge. In addition to providing information orally, the pharmacist gives the patient written monographs on each of the patient's drugs, a sheet of general guidelines on medication administration, and a calendar noting administration schedules. Two pharmacists are responsible for the project and counsel about four patients weekly. The average time to complete a consultation, including documentation in the patient's medical record, is 30 minutes. The medication discharge consultation program improves patient compliance by increasing the patient's knowledge of drug therapy and enables the hospital to meet current practice standards.
D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000193:education; D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D006801:Humans; D008824:Michigan; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital; D012017:Referral and Consultation