Benefit of a Collaborative Approach to Improve the Quality of Medicines Use in Elderly Inpatients

Frail Elderly Inpatient Clinical Trial

Official title:

Collaborative Approach to Improve the Quality of Medicines Use in Elderly Inpatients - Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00279656
• Other study ID #: om050-40/2003
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• First received: January 17, 2006
• Last updated: January 17, 2006
• Start date: November 2003
• Est. completion date: June 2005

Study information

• Verified date: June 2004
• Source: Université Catholique de Louvain
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Belgium: Institutional Review Board
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a collaborative approach (geriatric care involving the collaboration with a clinical pharmacist) to optimize the prescription of medicines for elderly inpatients.

Description:

Widespread evidence reveals frequent inadequate use of medicines in elderly patients. This includes inappropriate prescribing (overuse, underuse, misuse) that can lead to adverse drug events and drug-related admissions to hospital. In addition, when a patient is transferred from acute care settings to ambulatory care settings, discrepancies in medicines used often occur and can be hazardous.

Despite this, only limited data exist on the effectiveness of optimization strategies targeted at frail elderly inpatients.

Comparison: elderly inpatients receiving geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) care versus elderly inpatients receiving pharmaceutical care in addition to GEM care.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 180
• Est. completion date: June 2005
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 70 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient admitted on the acute geriatric unit of the university teaching hospital Mont-Godinne, Belgium

Exclusion Criteria:

• a terminal illness and life expectancy of less than 3 month

• expected length of stay of 2 days or less

• transfer from another unit where the patient had already been cared for by a GEM team

• refusal to participate

• inclusion during previous admission

• no time for the clinical pharmacist to compound the abstracted chart within 3 days of admission

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Educational/Counseling/Training

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Frail Elderly Inpatient

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Pharmaceutical care

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Belgium	Université catholique de Louvain	Brussels

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Université Catholique de Louvain	Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Belgium, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Appropriateness of prescribing (using the Medication Appropriateness Index, the Beers criteria, and the ACOVE criteria of underuse) on admission, at discharge, and 3 months post-discharge
Secondary	Polymedication on admission, at discharge, and 1,3,12 months after discharge
Secondary	Mortality, readmission to hospital and visit to the emergency department 1,3,12 months after discharge
Secondary	Satisfaction with information received on medicines