Grant: Operating Grant

People who are hospitalized often already take many medications. Many of these medications will be stopped or changed during a hospital stay. When patients are discharged from hospital and return home, they can sometimes get ill from the medications they were given because of problems in communication between the hospital treatment and their community-based health care providers. This study will test the advantages of using available information from provincial drug plans and community pharmacies to provide better information about community medications patients are taking at the time of hospital discharge, and improve the communication of changes made during a patient's hospital stay back to the community pharmacists and doctors. Computerized lists of community medications will be used to help patients and health professionals check which medications are being prescribed and taken. Doctors, pharmacists and nurses in the hospital will then be able to make sure new hospital and previous community drug lists are correctly matched and that the information is shared with the community doctors and pharmacists. This study will take place in three hospitals which are part of the McGill University Health Centre. There are a total of 28 medical, surgical and psychiatric units that provides treatment to 1.3 million Quebecers living in the western part of the province, spanning the area from Montreal to James Bay. We will randomize half of the hospital units to a discharge medication reconciliation and communication module, and compare these units to usual care to find out if the use of these computerized tools will decrease the number of people getting ill from medication problems that make them come back to hospital after they have been discharged home.