A CONTROLLED TRIAL OF COLLABORATIVE MEDICATION EDUCATION AND PHARMACEUTICAL CARE. M.S. Roberts 1 , K. Cholka 1 , J. Chang 1 , C. Amy 1 , W.N. Kapoor 1 ; 1 University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA PURPOSE: To assess whether a multidisciplinary intervention designed to improve patient medication education and evaluate specific medication regimens can improve patient knowledge concerning medication use, increase compliance with medication use post-discharge, and decrease medication errors. METHODS: A multidisciplinary intervention was designed that included 1) a folder with medication information sheets placed at the bedside, 2) nurse-directed teaching about each medication with each administration throughout the hospital stay, 3) automatically triggered specialized teaching plans for anticoagulation, diabetes, and inhaled mediations, 4) protocoltriggered review of medications by a pharmacist to decrease administration complexity and identify potential medication-related problems (interactions, dosing problems, ADRs). The intervention was studied in 4 nursing units in a tertiary teaching hospital utilizing a non- repeated pre ± post/intervention-control design. The intervention was applied to all patients admitted to the intervention unit, and was not instituted on the control unit. Random samples of patients from both the control and intervention units before and after the implementation of the intervention were selected for participation in the evaluation component of the project. Evaluation consisted of baseline data collection and a structured survey that occurred 14 days post-discharge to assess knowledge and compliance. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test for significance. RESULTS: 2397 patients were admitted during the study period (1264 on the control unit, 1133 on the intervention). 1246 randomly selected patients (602 control, 644 intervention) were screened for participation in the evaluation component of whom 611would be responsible for their own medications post-discharge and were eligible. 302 patients agreed to participate and 239 (155 control, 124 intervention) completed the 14-day follow-up. Improvement in postdischarge assessment of knowledge regarding specific medications was significantly higher in the intervention group (7.4% for control vs 28.0% intervention, p = 0.0129), as was patient satisfaction with medication education. Protocol-initiated pharmacy consults were completed on 43 patients, of which 18 resulted in improvements in therapy. CONCLUSION: This pilot trial demonstrates that a multi-disciplinary intervention composed of nurse-directed education given at the time of medication administration linked with protocol-based consults to pharmacists and other health care providers can significantly increase patient knowledge regarding medication and satisfaction with medication education. Larger sample sizes are required to assess impact on medication error reduction, readmission and health status. ., yet little information exists on physician or public opinion regarding conclusions from that report. METHODS: We randomly surveyed 1000 Colorado physicians using a mail questionnaire and asked them to rate their agreement with several statements from the TOM report. A telephone survey of 500 Colorado residents asked respondents to rate their agreement with the same statements. Chi-square tests were used to compare proportions of physicians and the public who agreed with the statements and to assess for demographic differences by response. RESULTS: Response rates were 57% for physicians and 82% for the public. The following table shows percentages of physicians and the public who agreed with each statement: