Pharmacist Follow-up, a Qualitative Study of Patient Experience

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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A pharmacist follow-up procedure is under development. Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) is being followed up by a pharmacist for one year with three meetings; at discharge from hospital, after three months and after one year. The evaluation is basically based on quantitative measures as achievement of therapeutic goals, number of drug related problems detected, hospitalisations etc. However, the patients' own experience with the follow-up procedure cannot be evaluated using these measures. Thus, a qualitative approach is needed. In this study, a total of four patients participating in the follow-up will be included and interviewed. A semistructured interview guide will be used. Interviews will be taped, transcribed and analyzed with the intention to explore how patients experience the follow-up from the pharmacist. A thoruough content analysis will be performed. Patients included must have met the pharmacist at least twice. The pharmacist in charge of the follow-up will recruit patients and hand out study information. Patients will reply to the principal investigator of the study and thus kept anonymous for the pharmacist in charge of the follow-up. No pressure will be put on the patients to join, but it will be emphasized that it will help evaluating the procedure.

Detailed Description
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See full publication on http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/7/197 Garcia et al. BMC Research Notes 2014, 7:197

Official Title
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Pharmacist Follow-up of Patients With Coronary Heart Disease. A Qualitative Study of Patient Experience.

Conditions
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Patient Satisfaction, Patient Preference

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: must have met the pharmacist at least twice living within the area of Tromsoe city so that interviews are possible Exclusion Criteria none as patients are already enrolled in another study

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 80 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Study group<br>Patients who are included in the pharmacist follow-up procedure | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Qualitative evaluation of the impact of pharmacist follow-up via interviews with the participating patients | In the pharmacist follow-up procedure under development, patients have individual consultations with a pharmacist three times. Patients are recruited to this study at the second or third consultation. Interviews will be performed with patients included to explore how patients' experience this follow-up procedure. Outcome measures from patient interviews can be counted. In qualitative research, the content of the interviews are thoroughly analysed with focus on the meaning of the informant's/interviewee's sayings. Outcomes will be presented as overall themes touched by the informants. | 3 months or 1 year | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Qualitetive interview, Coronary heart disease (CHD), Patient experience, Patient perception