Pharmacists' Recommendations to Improve Care Transitions

BACKGROUND:Increasingly, hospitals are implementing multifaceted programs to improve medication reconciliation and transitions of care, often involving pharmacists.OBJECTIVE:To assess pharmacists' views on their roles in hospital-based medication reconciliation and discharge counseling and provide their recommendations for improving care transitions.METHODS:Eleven study pharmacists at 2 hospitals participated in the Pharmacist Intervention for Low Literacy in Cardiovascular Disease (PILL-CVD) study and completed semistructured one-on-one interviews, which were coded systematically in NVivo. Pharmacists provided their perspectives on admission and discharge medication reconciliation, in-hospital patient counseling, provision of simple medication adherence aids (eg, pill box, illustrated daily medication schedule), and telephone follow-up.RESULTS:Pharmacists indicated that they considered medication reconciliation, although time consuming, to be their most important role in improving care transitions, parti...