[Medication Plans at Hospital Admission - a Multicentre Analysis Using Statutory Health Insurance Data]

Changes in drug therapy at intersectoral interfaces can lead to clinically relevant drug-related problems. This study aimed, therefore, at comparing the drug prescription continuity of patients with and without a medication plan at hospital admission.

After ethical approval, patients of a health insurance company in 6 hospitals in Saxony were consecutively assigned to this study from November 2011 to January 2012 after written informed consent. We assessed the following drug-related data for patients with and without medication plan at hospital admission: (i) the medication prescribed by the hospital physician on the day of hospital admission and (ii) the medication of the hospital discharge letter. Patient-individual claims data were assigned to the inpatient data for a period of 6 months before and after inpatient treatment (data linkage).

Of the 279 study participants, 173 (62 %) used a medication plan at hospital admission. Patients with a medication plan had a statistically significantly older age, higher numbers of drugs and diagnoses and fewer emergency admissions. At admission 53 % of the drugs were continued in patients with medication plan and 40 % in patients without a medication plan (p < 0.001). At hospital discharge 66 % and 64 % were continued after discharge (n. s.). Medication plans were mostly written by their GP (38 %) and in 12 % by the patients themselves.

Even before implementation of the national medication plan, nearly two third of the patients had a medication plan at hospital admission. However, in many cases it had been prepared by the patients themselves. The existence of a medication plan can have an impact on the continuity of the drug prescription during hospitalisation but not after discharge.