The IMPACT-care project
Improved Medication Information and Patient Involvement At Care Transitions" (IMPACT-care) is a project aimed at improving communication about medications upon hospital discharge in order to increase patient safety and reduce healthcare-associated adverse events associated.
The lack of follow-up of medication treatment after hospital discharge is a common reason for healthcare-associated adverse events.
Medication is a common treatment for older persons, but it can also lead to problems like hospital admissions, often due to medication side effects. Older individuals are more susceptible as they often have multiple diseases and medications. The risk of problems is especially high when these older persons transition from hospital to home care. Nearly all older hospitalised patients experience changes in their medication treatment, but follow-up after discharge is not always sufficient, often due to poor communication and follow-up issues. We believe many of these problems can be avoided, which is why we initiated the IMPACT-care research project in autumn 2019.
Purpose of the project
We aim to improve medication communication for older patients at hospital discharge, making the discharge process safer, especially regarding medication treatment, and involving the patients and their informal caregiver more in the process.
How the project will be conducted
The project is divided into three steps:
Subproject 1: Investigating how well medication related follow-ups are communicated when older persons are discharged from the hospital. We will analyse referrals sent from hospitals to the next healthcare provider at discharge.
Subproject 2: Mapping out how communication occurs between healthcare professionals in various care organisations and between healthcare professionals and older patients as well as their informal caregivers. This is to better understand the discharge process and find potential improvements. The mapping will be conducted through studies where we observe and interview healthcare professionals and patients/informal caregivers.
Subproject 3: Using the knowledge from Subprojects 1 and 2 and previous national/international studies to design and carry out an intervention study. The intervention will be a new approach intended to make the discharge of elderly patients from hospitals safer by improving medication communication and involvement of the patient/relatives in medication treatment. This new approach will include a patient brochure in Swedish we have developed. We will compare the new approach to current practices to see its effect.
Expected benefits with the project
Improving the hospital discharge process is a prioritized research area to make healthcare safer nationally and internationally. Through our project, a lot of new knowledge will be generated, and we expect to develop an improved approach that ensures information about medication treatment reaches the patient/informal caregivers and the next healthcare provider taking over after hospital care. In this way, better conditions for optimal treatment results and patient safety can be created.
Who is Conducting the Project?
The project is a collaboration between Region Uppsala, Region Västmanland, participants from senior and informal caregiver organisations, the Department of Pharmacy, and the Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences at Uppsala University. Our project team consists of a mix of researchers, clinically active professionals from various professions, and participants from senior/informal caregiver organisations. We continuously involve participants from these organisations to constantly add the public involvement perspective throughout the research project.
Publication of results and funding
The results of the project will be published continuously in scientific journals. We will post links to the publications on our website, so stay tuned.
The project is funded by research grants from the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity, and the Sjukvårdsregionala forskningsrådet i Mellansverige (RFR).