Medicines Management for the Transition of Care from Hospital to Home

Dear Colleagues,

In the process of transition from hospital care to home care, patients with different types of diseases often are required to deal with a variety of changes in their lifestyle and also need to follow restricted medication regimes. It happens mainly in patients suffering from chronic or psychiatric diseases that need long-term medication and are undergoing multi-drug therapy (MDT). It is noted that medication errors, drug-related side effects and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and lack of adherence to the medication regime are the main causes for frequent referrals and admissions to healthcare settings. This condition reduces patients’ quality of life and well-being, increases the cost of care and also dissatisfies healthcare providers due to enhanced workloads. It is believed that avoidable hospital readmissions are the main focus of attention by healthcare policy-makers for the improvement of quality of life and reduction of healthcare costs across the globe. Therefore, there is a need to devise appropriate models of care transition from the hospital to home to prevent medication-related incidents with a probable focus on timely communication to enable on-time decision-making by those healthcare providers who are involved in the care transition; e-health innovations, especially in remote and rural areas; and the active involvement of family caregivers. Nowadays, the role of family caregivers in the provision of care to older people, patients with chronic and psychiatric diseases, dementia and Alzheimer’s has been highlighted. Current knowledge and experiences should be connected to improve our understanding of the models of care transition influencing medication practice in different contexts and cultures that can be used by caregivers in other settings. In this Special Issue, the editors welcome research articles (qualitative and quantitative), letters to the editor, theoretical and methodological reviews on experiences and interventions related to care transitions from hospital to home with a focus on medicine management (from drug prescription to drug administration, and adverse drug reaction monitoring and management approaches) and with consideration of the roles of different stakeholders including patients, family caregivers, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, etc. Additionally, practical experiences and reflections on the role of advanced technologies and e-health solutions in facilitating the medicine management during care transitions and the prevention of medication errors are encouraged.

Prof. Mojtaba Vaismoradi
Dr. Tarja Välimäki
Guest Editors

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• Patient safety
• Drug-related side effects and adverse reactions
• Adverse drug reaction monitoring profile
• Medication error
• Medicine management
• Geriatric nursing
• Home care
• Family caregiver
• Informal caregiver
• Transition from hospital to home
• E-health