Hospital discharge study
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN18427377 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN18427377 |
| Protocol serial number | N/A |
| Sponsor | University Hospital of Zurich |
| Funders | Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, National Research Programme “Smarter Health Care” (NRP 74), Universität Zürich |
- Submission date
- 03/01/2018
- Registration date
- 11/01/2018
- Last edited
- 01/09/2022
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Other
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and study aims:
Elderly patients suffering from multiple diseases often have to take a large variety of different drugs. Unfortunately and even though every individual drug might have its justification and benefits, long and complicated medication lists bring along a considerable risk of unwanted drug effects. These might be due to unforeseen interactions of the many preparations or due to the increasing probability of prescription or intake errors. During a hospital stay, the number of prescribed medicines often rises once more. On the other hand, follow-up general practitioners or the patients themselves show a tendency not to maintain the changes introduced in the hospital after discharge, but to switch back to the usual drug regimens that they are already familiar with. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether a systematic discharge procedure coupled with better communication among hospital physicians, the patients and their general practitioners can help to improve the patients’ medication at discharge. We expect that the successful study will promote shortening of overly long medication lists by “deprescribing” inappropriate drugs. Ultimately, this study will help to extend the time until the next hospital admission and thus lead to a higher quality of life after discharge.
Who can participate?
Senior hospital physicians of participating hospitals in the German-speaking part of Switzerland with their subordinate assistant physicians and their in-hospital patients of at least 60 years of age and with 5 or more drugs prescribed.
What does the study involve?
The senior hospital physicians are assigned by chance to either the intervention or the control arm of the study. The senior hospital physicians are then be instructed by the study center about their respective discharge and communication strategy and in turn teach their assistant physicians how to apply it to the patients to be discharged. Over a period of up to 4 months, the hospital physicians apply the assigned discharge strategy to about 50 suitable patients per senior hospital physician. In particular, the medication lists and quality of life scores of these patients are recorded at the time of leaving the hospital. Subsequently, after 1, 3 and 6 months, more data is collected from the patients on their number of drugs, quality of life and doctor contacts, hospital readmissions or deaths. In case of incomplete responses from the patients themselves, the study team tries to collect the missing data from relatives, general practitioners or health insurance companies.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Study participants may benefit directly from the favorable effects of an optimized medication list and an improved information flow at discharge. However, changing their medication lists might also lead to undesirable consequences. Therefore, the general practitioners will be informed about their patients’ participation in the study and will be asked to pay particular attention to possible side effects. Moreover, should previously well-controlled symptoms of illnesses appear more frequently or in higher intensity after a change of drugs, then that same change can be reversed immediately at any time.
Where is the study conducted?
Institute of Primary Care of the University of Zurich, Switzerland
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
January 2017 to September 2021 (updated 10/07/2020, previously: December 2020)
Who is funding the study?
1. National Research Programme “Smarter Health Care” (NRP 74), Swiss National Science Foundation (Switzerland)
2. Institute of Primary Care, UniversityHospital Zurich (Switzerland)
Who is the main contact?
Dr. med. Stefan Neuner-Jehle MPH (Scientific)
stefan.neuner-jehle@usz.ch
Contact information
Scientific
Institute of Primary Care
UniversityHospital Zurich
Pestalozzistrasse 24
Zurich
CH-8091
Switzerland
| Phone | +41 44 255 98 55 |
|---|---|
| stefan.neuner-jehle@usz.ch |
Public
Institute of Primary Care
UniversityHospital Zurich
Pestalozzistrasse 24
Zurich
CH-8091
Switzerland
 ORCID ID |
0000-0002-1564-5296 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +41 44 255 98 55 |
| thomas.grischott@usz.ch |
Public
Institute of Primary Care
UniversityHospital Zurich
Pestalozzistrasse 24
Zurich
CH-8091
Switzerland
| ORCID ID |
0000-0001-5012-0068 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +41 44 255 98 55 |
| stefan.zechmann@usz.ch |
Study information
| Primary study design | Interventional |
|---|---|
| Study design | Double-center double-blind cluster-randomized parallel-controlled clinical trial |
| Secondary study design | Cluster randomised trial |
| Study type | Participant information sheet |
| Scientific title | Improving inappropriate medication and information transfer at hospital discharge: A cluster-RCT |
| Study acronym | HDS |
| Study objectives | A simple medication review tool in combination with a defined communication strategy at hospital discharge leads to longer hospital readmission times compared to usual care at discharge, and has the potential to improve the patients' health outcomes and quality of life. |
| Ethics approval(s) | Approved 07/02/2019, Ethikkommission Zürich (Ethics Committee Zurich, Stampfenbachstrasse 121, CH-8090 Zurich, Switzerland; +41 (0)43 259 79 70; info.kek@kek.zh.ch), ref: BASEC-Nr. 2018-00215 |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Discharge of multimorbid elderly hospital patients |
| Intervention | Randomisation on the level of senior hospital physicians (= clusters) is done using a software random number generator. A minimization approach is used to restrict potential imbalance between the two study arms in terms of cluster covariates. In the intervention group, the senior hospital physicians takes part in a teaching session of two hours duration about how to integrate a structured medication review and specific elements of communication into the daily discharge routine. The senior physicians are responsible for instructing their assistant physicians in patient recruitment and carrying out the correct discharge procedure. The assistant physicians critically review their patients’ medication lists, discuss the results of these reviews and their suggestions with the patients and compile revised medication lists which they then communicate to the patients’ general practitioners with an invitation for discussion. The senior hospital physicians in the control group undergo a two hour instructiont addressing multimorbidity, patient in- and exclusion and the handling of the different data collection forms. Their assistant physicians will follow the “usual” discharge routine of their clinics. |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure(s) |
1. Time (in days) without readmission to hospital is collected using Patient records (patient questionnaires and/or calls, general practitioner records, hospital records, health insurance company records) and consecutive calculation, within 6 months after discharge |
| Key secondary outcome measure(s) |
1. Readmission rates are collected using patient records (patient questionnaires and/or calls, general practitioner records, hospital records, health insurance company records) within 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge |
| Completion date | 30/04/2021 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Patient |
|---|---|
| Age group | Other |
| Sex | All |
| Target sample size at registration | 2142 |
| Total final enrolment | 687 |
| Key inclusion criteria | 1. In-hospital patient at the time of inclusion 2. Male or female of 60 years or older with 5 or more drugs prescribed 3. Signed informed consent or – in case of a patient incapable of judgement – written consent of a representative according to the Swiss law (fulfillment of the criteria laid down in HFG Art. 24, 1a.-c. with a legal representative according to ZGB Art. 378) |
| Key exclusion criteria | 1. End-stage disease with a life expectancy below 3 months 2. Cognitive inability to follow study procedures neither independently nor with assistance 3. Hospitals who took part in the Swiss national pilot project “progress! Sichere Medikation an Schnittstellen” will not be considered for participation in the trial (but may be involved in the pilot phase of the study). |
| Date of first enrolment | 01/05/2018 |
| Date of final enrolment | 30/09/2020 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- Switzerland
Study participating centres
Pestalozzistrasse 24
Zurich
CH-8091
Switzerland
Gesellschaftsstrasse 49
Bern
CH-3012
Switzerland
Results and Publications
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | Yes |
|---|---|
| IPD sharing plan summary | Available on request |
| IPD sharing plan | The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study will be available in anonymised form upon reasonable request for result verification or other scientific purposes related to the present study from the primary contact under the condition that all data will be deleted at the latest 10 years after termination of the study. |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results article | 31/08/2022 | 01/09/2022 | Yes | No | |
| Protocol article | protocol | 27/12/2018 | Yes | No | |
| Other publications | process evaluation | 27/05/2021 | 01/06/2021 | Yes | No |
| Participant information sheet | Participant information sheet | 11/11/2025 | 11/11/2025 | No | Yes |
| Study website | Study website | 11/11/2025 | 11/11/2025 | No | Yes |
Editorial Notes
01/09/2022: Publication reference added.
17/05/2022: The intention to publish date has been changed from 31/12/2021 to 31/07/2022.
14/12/2021: Ethics approval details added.
13/12/2021: Sponsor GRID ID corrected.
13/09/2021: The following changes have been made:
1. The overall trial end date has been changed from 30/09/2021 to 30/04/2021.
2. The final enrolment number has been changed from 638 to 687.
01/06/2021: Publication reference added.
03/11/2020: The following changes have been made:
1. The 'suspended' status has been removed.
2. The final enrolment number has been added.
10/07/2020: The following changes were made to the trial record:
1. The recruitment end date was changed from 30/06/2020 to 30/09/2020.
2. The overall end date was changed from 30/06/2021 to 30/09/2021.
3. The intention to publish date was changed from 01/10/2021 to 31/12/2021.
4. The plain English summary was updated to reflect these changes.
23/04/2020: Due to current public health guidance, recruitment for this study has been paused.
13/01/2020: The following changes have been made:
1. The recruitment end date has been changed from 21/12/2019 to 30/06/2020.
2. The overall trial end date has been changed from 31/12/2020 to 30/06/2021.
3. The trial participating centre University Hospital Bern was added.
4. The trial participating centre University Hospital Zurich was changed from Institute of Primary Care
to University Hospital Zurich.
5. The study design was changed from "Single-center double-blind cluster-randomized parallel-controlled clinical trial" to "Double-center double-blind cluster-randomized parallel-controlled clinical trial"
05/07/2019: IPD sharing statement added.
04/07/2019: The following changes were made to the trial record:
1. The recruitment end date was changed from 30/06/2019 to 21/12/2019.
2. The intention to publish date was changed from 01/10/2020 to 01/10/2021.
04/01/2019: Publication reference added.
13/09/2018: The recruitment end date has been changed from 31/12/2018 to 30/06/2019.
