Pharmacist Intervention to Decrease Medication Errors in Heart Disease Patients (The PILL-CVD Study)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Acute Coronary Syndrome; Heart Failure

Treatments: Behavioral: Pharmacist Intervention for Low-Literacy in Cardiovascular Disease

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00632021

539

R01HL089755 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Many people who have recently left the hospital have difficulties managing their medications, and medication errors are common. Patients with low health literacy levels may have a particularly difficult time understanding medication dosing and instructions. This study will evaluate a literacy-focused program that provides educational assistance from pharmacists at the time of hospital discharge to people hospitalized with heart problems.

Full description

After hospital discharge, many people experience difficulty in managing their medication regimens. This can be due to medication dosing changes, challenges in adjusting new medications with those that were taken previously, inadequate discharge instructions from hospital personnel, and inadequate follow-up. Difficulty with medication management can lead to medication errors that result in harmful side effects, poor disease control, hospital readmission, or even death. People with low health literacy often have greater difficulty with understanding and managing their medication regimens and as a result they experience more medication use errors. Although research shows that many medication errors could be prevented or lessened through improved doctor communication and patient-centered treatment programs, little research has been done on the effectiveness of such programs among low-literacy patients or of such programs during key transition times like hospital discharge. Getting pharmacists involved with patient care before hospital discharge may prevent unnecessary and dangerous medication errors from occurring once patients leave the hospital. Because of the severity of heart conditions and the likelihood of serious adverse effects from non-compliance with heart medications, this study will evaluate people admitted to the hospital for acute coronary syndromes or heart failure. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a health literacy-focused, pharmacist-delivered program at reducing medication errors in heart patients during the first month after hospital discharge.

This study will enroll people admitted to the hospital who have acute coronary syndromes or heart failure. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the pharmacist-delivered program or usual care. Participants assigned to the intervention group will receive a pharmacist-assisted medication review while in the hospital, counseling from a pharmacist at the time of hospital discharge, a low-literacy education tool that details the discharge medications, a follow-up phone call 1 to 4 days after discharge, and additional phone calls as needed. Participants receiving usual care will receive a doctor-assisted medication review and nurse-provided guidance on medication usage at the time of hospital discharge. Approximately 30 days after hospital discharge, study researchers will call all participants to collect information on serious medication errors, health care utilization, and disease-specific quality of life.

Enrollment: 862 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Admitted to a participating study hospital
• Diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes or heart failure

Exclusion criteria

• Too ill to participate
• Corrected visual acuity worse than 20/200
• Severe hearing impairment
• Patient is not being discharged to their home
• No regular telephone number
• Not fluent in English or Spanish
• Unintelligible speech
• In police custody
• Caregiver manages all medications
• Delirium or severe dementia
• Psychotic illness
• Already participating in a conflicting study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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862 participants in 2 patient groups

1

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients will receive usual care at hospital discharge, which generally includes physician reconciliation of medications and a nurse-provided explanation of how to take medications at the time of discharge.

2

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive pharmacist-led medication reconciliation, pharmacist counseling prior to discharge, a follow-up telephone call 1-4 days after discharge, and additional telephone support as needed.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Pharmacist Intervention for Low-Literacy in Cardiovascular Disease