Comparison of medication history interview conducted via telephone with interview conducted face‐to‐face for elective surgical patients

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate whether medication history-taking via telephone interview is an alternative to face-to-face medication history-taking in elective surgical patients planned for admission after surgery. Method: Patients undergoing elective surgery who were planned for post-procedure admission during an 8-week period between February and March 2015 were eligible for enrolment. A semi-structured, scripted medication history interview was performed via telephone on the working day prior to the booked admission date for patients who met the inclusion criteria. Blinded comparator face-to-face histories were documented post-operatively as per standard practice. Discrepancies identified were risk stratified via consensus by a panel of three pharmacists. Results: Sixty-four patients received a telephone history interview and comparator face-to-face interview. The average number of medications was 4.47 for phone history versus 4.64 for face-to-face interview (p = 0.247). The average time to conduct a phone history interview was 5.8 min (standard deviation 3.89 min) compared to 6.69 min (standard deviation 5.01 min) (p = 0.176) for interviews conducted face-to-face. Omission or documented error of a regular prescription medication occurred with four patients (6.25%). Two errors were deemed clinically significant with the potential to cause moderate discomfort or clinical deterioration. Conclusion: Medication history interviews via telephone are a suitable alternative to face-to-face medication history-taking in lowrisk elective surgical patients who are unable or not required to attend an elective procedures admission clinic.

The Impact of Pharmacists on Telehealth During Transitions of Care: A Literature Review

“…The study types included randomized trials (n = 1), pilot studies (n = 2), prospective cohort studies (n = 4), retrospective review (n = 2), retrospective cohort study (n = 2), retrospective observational pre-post study (n=1), prospective quasi-experimental study (n = 1), and case study (n=1). Participants of the included studies contained patients with hypertension, diabetes, and/or dyslipidemia (n = 2) 3,5 ; heart failure (n = 4) [6][7][8][9] ; cystic fibrosis (n = 2) 4,10 ; cancer (n = 1) 11 ; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 1) 10 ; veterans with varying mental health disorders (n = 2) 12,13 ; elective surgical patients (n = 1) 14 ; patients requiring warfarin therapy (n = 1) 5 ; and patients with varying or multiple chronic diseases requiring management (n = 2). 15,16 In the studies reviewed, pharmacist telehealth monitoring was conducted via phone (n = 8), 3,4,6,8,10,[14][15][16] video conferencing (n = 3), 4,9,13 both teleconferencing software and phone (n = 2), 7,11 e-charts (n = 1), 5 and tablet (n = 1).…”

Effects of intervention on lifestyle changes among coronary artery disease patients: A 6‐month follow‐up study

“…Using a telephone interview method for the follow‐up data collection could be another study limitation. However, telephone interviews can produce high‐quality data comparable to face‐to face interviews (Canning et al., 2018 ; da Silva et al., 2014 ). The generalizability of this study's findings is limited due to the small sample size from a single cardiac centre.…”

“…Using a telephone interview method for the follow-up data collection could be another study limitation. However, telephone interviews can produce high-quality data comparable to face-to face interviews (Canning et al, 2018;da Silva et al, 2014).…”

Medication Regimen Complexity Index Score at Admission as a Predictor of Inpatient Outcomes: A Machine Learning Approach

“…Indeed, medication reconciliation informs on the negative consequences of medication list discrepancies [ 5 ]. Complete medication histories can help prevent medication errors and adverse drug events (ADEs) [ 6 , 7 ], which are more common among intensive care unit (ICU) patients than hospitalized patients [ 8 ].…”