Interventions in seamless care.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether good collaboration between community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists prevents medication errors. These errors might occur when a patient is discharged from hospital. Both disciplines can complement each other in medication management for the patient.
METHOD: The documented interventions of eight teams consisting of a community pharmacist and a hospital pharmacist, were collected and interpreted with a focus on structural problems and also on positive and negative items, that could influence the intensive collaboration between both disciplines.
RESULTS: The registered interventions can be grouped into five categories. Most interventions were registered in the category where the major problem is a lack of communication with the patient. Due to collaboration between the hospital and community pharmacist, all identified problems were resolved properly.
CONCLUSION: When communication between community and hospital pharmacists is optimised, patients will face fewer problems with their medication when they are discharged from hospital.