Impact of pharmacists' interventions on the pediatric discharge medication process

BACKGROUND: To our knowledge, as of August 19, 2004, the impact of pharmacists' interventions on pediatric patients and their caregivers' ability to obtain discharge medications from community pharmacies in a timely fashion has not been described. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of pharmacists' interventions on patients' likelihood of obtaining medications within 24 hours of hospital discharge. METHODS: Patients meeting study criteria were randomized to an intervention or control group. The intervention was a proactive program of discharge planning by the pharmacy team. All study patients received a follow-up telephone interview to assess the amount of time needed to obtain medications and caregivers' knowledge of how to administer medications. A multivariate linear regression was conducted to assess the association between variables such as insurance, place of residence, number of prescribed medications, and the probability to obtain medications within 24 hours of hospital discharge. RESULTS: The final analysis included 81 control patients and 91 intervention patients. After controlling for a number of factors, the intervention group was able to have obtained medications within 24 hours more often than the control group (84% vs 69%; p = 0.027). Caregivers' knowledge of how to correctly administer medications did not differ between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the coordinated efforts of pharmacists' interventions during the discharge process may have a positive impact. Our observations may be used to establish criteria for identifying patients at risk for problems with obtaining medications at discharge.