Benefit of a Collaborative Approach to Improve the Quality of Medicines Use in Elderly Inpatients - Full Text View

Sponsors and Collaborators:	Université Catholique de Louvain Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique
Information provided by:	Université Catholique de Louvain
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00279656

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a collaborative approach (geriatric care involving the collaboration with a clinical pharmacist) to optimize the prescription of medicines for elderly inpatients.

Condition	Intervention	Phase
Frail Elderly Inpatient	Behavioral: Pharmaceutical care	Phase IV

U.S. FDA Resources

Study Type:	Interventional
Study Design:	Educational/Counseling/Training, Randomized, Open Label, Active Control, Parallel Assignment, Safety/Efficacy Study
Official Title:	Collaborative Approach to Improve the Quality of Medicines Use in Elderly Inpatients - Randomized Controlled Trial

Further study details as provided by Université Catholique de Louvain:

Primary Outcome Measures:

Appropriateness of prescribing (using the Medication Appropriateness Index, the Beers criteria, and the ACOVE criteria of underuse) on admission, at discharge, and 3 months post-discharge

Secondary Outcome Measures:

Polymedication on admission, at discharge, and 1,3,12 months after discharge
Mortality, readmission to hospital and visit to the emergency department 1,3,12 months after discharge
Satisfaction with information received on medicines

Estimated Enrollment:	180
Study Start Date:	November 2003
Estimated Study Completion Date:	June 2005

Detailed Description:

Widespread evidence reveals frequent inadequate use of medicines in elderly patients. This includes inappropriate prescribing (overuse, underuse, misuse) that can lead to adverse drug events and drug-related admissions to hospital. In addition, when a patient is transferred from acute care settings to ambulatory care settings, discrepancies in medicines used often occur and can be hazardous.

Despite this, only limited data exist on the effectiveness of optimization strategies targeted at frail elderly inpatients.

Comparison: elderly inpatients receiving geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) care versus elderly inpatients receiving pharmaceutical care in addition to GEM care.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:	70 Years and older
Genders Eligible for Study:	Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Patient admitted on the acute geriatric unit of the university teaching hospital Mont-Godinne, Belgium

Exclusion Criteria:

a terminal illness and life expectancy of less than 3 month
expected length of stay of 2 days or less
transfer from another unit where the patient had already been cared for by a GEM team
refusal to participate
inclusion during previous admission
no time for the clinical pharmacist to compound the abstracted chart within 3 days of admission

Contacts and Locations

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00279656

Locations

Belgium
Université catholique de Louvain
Brussels, Belgium, 1200

Sponsors and Collaborators

Université Catholique de Louvain

Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique

Investigators

Principal Investigator:	Anne Spinewine, MSc	Université Catholique de Louvain
Study Chair:	Christian Swine, MD	Université Catholique de Louvain
Study Director:	Paul M Tulkens, PhD	Université Catholique de Louvain

More Information

Study ID Numbers:	om050-40/2003
Study First Received:	January 17, 2006
Last Updated:	January 17, 2006
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00279656
Health Authority:	Belgium: Institutional Review Board

Keywords provided by Université Catholique de Louvain:

Frail elderly
Pharmaceutical services
Drug therapy

Geriatrics
Randomized controlled trial
Hospitals, teaching

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on January 16, 2009