Ensuring seamless care at hospital discharge: a national survey

To identify the services that hospital pharmacies were providing in 1999 to facilitate seamless care upon patient discharge.

Postal questionnaire containing closed and open questions.

U.K. Trust hospitals. Questionnaire addressed to Chief Pharmacists to be completed by themselves or most appropriate deputy, then returned anonymously in prepaid envelope.

The response rate was 73.4% (163/222). 71.2% of responses came from general hospitals and 23.3% from teaching hospitals. Junior medical staff members were responsible for preparing virtually all discharge prescriptions, which were checked against the ward prescription chart by pharmacists in three-quarters of U.K. Trusts. Hospitals used a wide variety of methods to communicate information about medicine regimens to GPs. There was also wide variation in the provision of discharge counselling, telephone 'help-lines' and clear medication records to patients. Few hospitals involved community pharmacies routinely in the discharge process.

There is still wide variation within hospital pharmacy practice in meeting the medicines-related needs of patients at discharge.