Completeness of patient medication records, after hospital discharge, in community pharmacies is disappointing

OBJECTIVE To explore the effect of instruction manuals on completeness of patient records in community pharmacies after hospital discharge Transferof information regarding discharge medication to community pharmacies should improve continuity of care This requires for community pharmacies to accurately update their patient records. DESIGN Before-after study (July 2009-August 2010) METHODS During the study period, community pharmacies (50 before - lik after) received discharge medication overviews from patients discharged from the cardiology and pulmonology wards The intervention consisted of a live training session for pharmacy technicians and faxing an instruction manual to community pharmacies specifying how to document discharge information in their information system Usual care consisted of faxing a discharge medication overview without additional instructions Two weeks after discharge the medication records were collected from community pharmacies These were compared with the initial discharge overviews regarding completeness of medication changes li.e explicit explanation that medication had been changed) and clinical information documentation (i e documentation of allergies and contraindications) Multivariate logistic regression was used for analysis RESULTS 218 patients (112 before - 106 after) were included Completeness of documentation regarding medication changes increased marginally after the intervention (47% vs 56%, adjusted odds ratio 1 A, 95% confidence interval 1 07-1.83). Documentation increased when medication was actually dispensed by the community pharmacy No significant improvements were seen for allergy and contraindication documentation CONCLUSION The intervention is insufficient to increase the completeness of patient records Incomplete records may hamper post-discharge medication surveillance and continuity of care when community pharmacy records are consulted to assess the patient's current medication.