Vis sammendrag
Increased life expectancy, a broad range of healthcare services, and the growing availability of treatment options have contributed to a higher prevalence of patients living with multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs). However, healthcare systems and treatment guidelines remain largely structured around single conditions, with limited consideration of coexisting conditions or concurrent medication use. Patients with MLTCs often use numerous medications, experience several care transitions due to their complex care needs and are at higher risk of hospitalisations. Altogether, this creates a significant challenge in delivering safe, optimal, and evidence-based healthcare to this vulnerable population. This thesis was designed in response to this emerging and urgent need.
The overall aim of this thesis was to obtain knowledge and understanding of how to optimise medication use in patients with MLTCs during and after a hospital stay. This was done by various approaches and through three studies:
• First, the frequency of potential prescribing omissions (PPOs) and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) at hospital admission and discharge were investigated to estimate the effect of a pharmacist-led intervention on the quality of drug treatment.
• Then, the focus was turned to detect the frequency, categories, underlying reasons and potential clinical relevance of medication discrepancies (MDs) between the medication list in discharge summaries and actual medication use after hospital discharge.
• Finally, facilitators and barriers to medication self-management in the transition from hospital to home were explored.
The first study, described in Paper I, showed that the pharmacist-led intervention had an effect on the mean number of PPOs, but not on the mean number of PIMs at discharge. PPOs and PIMs were frequent in patients with MLTCs, both at hospital admission and discharge. A minimum of 69% of the patients had either a PPO or PIM at any time point. For both the control and intervention group, the number of PIMs decreased from admission to discharge, while the number of PPOs only decreased in the intervention group. It seems essential that a systematic approach and professionals trained in identifying PPOs and PIMs are Incorporated to optimise medication use in this patient group during a hospital stay. However, the hospital may not be the most suitable setting in reducing PIMs.
In the second study, presented in Paper II, almost 90% of the patients had at least one MD between the medication list in the discharge summary and actual medication use after hospital discharge. The most frequent category was that a medication was in use, although it was not listed in the discharge summary. The underlying reason was for a majority of the MDs an apparent lack of or insufficient medication reconciliation during the hospital stay. Most MDs were classified as potential minor clinically relevant, however, there was over a five-fold increase in potential clinically relevant MDs, i.e. extreme, major or moderate, in the long-term perspective compared to the short-term perspective. This highlights that the potential clinical relevance increases over time if MDs are not revealed and corrected. Our results indicates that the majority of MDs could be prevented by sufficient actions to obtain accurate medication information during the hospital stay. This may help optimise medication use during and after a hospital stay.
The third study, presented in Paper III, was a qualitative study with patients and next of kin. Facilitators and barriers to medication self-management were numerous and complex. For some, the transition from hospital to home was experienced as a sudden handover of responsibility for managing medications. The patients considered support to medication self-management as important. The results suggest that healthcare professionals should adapt an overall holistic approach tailored to the individual patient’s needs to support patients in medication self-management and thereby optimising medication use after hospital discharge. Increased care coordination and patient empowerment seems like crucial components to improve patients’ medication self-management potential in the transition from hospital to home.
Altogether, the findings from these studies illustrate the great potential for improvement in how to optimise medication use in patients with MLTCs during and after a hospital stay. As PPOs, PIMs and MDs are preventable, targeted actions to reduce and avoid them, such as giving healthcare professionals sufficient training to identify these, could be a step towards optimising medication use in these vulnerable patients. Patients with MLTCs have various facilitators and barriers to medication self-management, suggesting that an overall holistic and patient-centred approach is needed to improve medication self-management and hence optimise medication use.