Clinical Pharmacists in the Emergency Department

Medication Reconciliation Clinical Trial

Official title:

Is Length of Stay in the Emergency Department Reduced When Clinical Pharmacists Conduct Medication History? - a Cluster Randomized Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02223676
• Other study ID #: 1-16-02-379-13
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 2013
• Est. completion date: December 2014

Study information

• Verified date: August 2014
• Source: Randers Regional Hospital
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of implementing clinical pharmacists in the Emergency Department Team at Randers Regional Hospital. The clinical pharmacists conduct medication history, make medical interaction screenings, -reconciliations and -reviews on unscheduled patients admitted to the Emergency Department during daytime.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 448
• Est. completion date: December 2014
• Est. primary completion date: June 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• unscheduled patients admitted to the Emergency Department at Randers Regional Hospital at weekdays during daytime (9 am to 16.15 pm)

• 4 or more drugs prescribed

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients triage red

• patients who cannot give informed consent

• terminal patients

• patients admitted to detoxification

• patients refered to the acute outpatient department

• patients remaining in the Emergency Department overnight

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Emergencies
• Medication Reconciliation

Intervention

Procedure:
• Clinical pharmacists conduct medication history
pharmacists conduct medication history before the physician interviews the patient and does not spend time on conducting medical history

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Denmark	Randers Regional Hospital	Randers	Region Midt

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Randers Regional Hospital	Aarhus University Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Denmark, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	The impact of the intervention in the Emergency Department on the existing medication review by clinical pharmacist at the acute ward	We estimate whether the intervention is time-saving (by recording and comparing time spent for secondary/excisting medication review at the acute ward between patients allocated to the intervention and control group, respectively) and reduce the workload of the clinicians (number and kind of interventions at secondary medication review in the two groups)	1-3 days after admission to Emergency Department when the secondary medication review takes place
Other	The impact of the intervention in the Emergency Department on the dispensing of medicine (done by nurses)	time used and the possibility of substitutions	During actual admission to the Emergency Department and the period after inclusion of patients
Primary	Emergency Department Length of stay		From arrival to the Emergency Department to either admission or discharge, which in average will be 6 hours.
Secondary	Time from patient arrival to the treatment schedule is ready		From arrival to the Emergency Department to either admission or discharge, which in average will be 6 hours.
Secondary	Patient safety	Number of recommended changes in drugs or dosage per patient. The changes are rated according to a PCNE-classification for drug-related problems.	From arrival to the Emergency Department to either admission or discharge, which in average will be 6 hours.