Reducing Medical Admissions into Hospital through Optimising Medicines (REMAIN HOME) Study: Protocol for a stepped wedge, cluster randomised trial

Foot, Holly, Freeman, Christopher, Hemming, Karla, Scott, Ian, Coombes, Ian, Williams, Ian, Connelly, Luke, Whitty, Jennifer A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5886-1933, Sturman, Nancy, Kirsa, Sue, Nicholson, Caroline, Russell, Grant, Kirkpatrick, Carl and Cottrell, Neil (2017) Reducing Medical Admissions into Hospital through Optimising Medicines (REMAIN HOME) Study: Protocol for a stepped wedge, cluster randomised trial. BMJ Open, 7 (4). ISSN 2044-6055

Preview

PDF (Foot_et_al_BMJOpen_2017_e015301) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Introduction: A model of general practitioner (GP) and pharmacist collaboration in primary care may be an effective strategy to reduce medication-related problems and provide better support to patients after discharge. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a model of structured pharmacist and GP care reduces hospital readmissions in patients at risk of readmission. Methods and analysis: This protocol details a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial that will recruit participants over nine months with a 12 month follow up. There will be 14 clusters each representing a different general practice medical centre. A total of 2240 participants will be recruited from hospital who attend an enrolled medical centre, take five or more long-term medicines or whose reason for admission was related to heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The intervention is a multi-faceted service, involving a pharmacist integrated into a medical centre to assist patients after hospitalisation. Participants will meet with the practice pharmacist and their GP after discharge to review and reconcile their medicines and discuss changes made in hospital. The pharmacist will follow up with the participant and liaise with other health professionals involved in the participant’s care. The control will be usual care, which usually involves a patient self-organising a visit to their GP after hospital discharge. The primary outcome is the rate of unplanned, all-cause hospital readmissions over 12 months which will be analysed using a mixed effects Poisson regression model with a random effect for cluster and a fixed effect to account for any temporal trend. A cost analysis will be undertaken to compare the healthcare costs associated with the intervention to those of usual care.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	readmission,primary care,pharmacist,medication,collaboration,stepped wedge cluster design
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Respiratory and Airways Group Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Economics
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2017 01:41
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 02:28
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63071
DOI:	10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015301

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item