Improving Pharmacological Transition of Palliative Care Patients From Inpatient to Outpatient Care

NCT ID: NCT06648733

Last Updated: 2025-06-13

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 200 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-06-20
• Study Completion Date: 2025-12-31

Brief Summary

The transition of palliative care patients from inpatient to outpatient care is aimed to be improved through structured pharmaceutical discharge management by a trained pharmacist. This data will be compared with retrospective cases.

Detailed Description

As part of a prospective observational study with a retrospective comparison group, a pharmacist should, on request, check the discharge medication planned by the primary care physicians before discharge and discuss it with the various colleagues providing (follow-up) care. In addition, the availability in the outpatient "medicine cabinet" and the possibility of prescribing by the responsible GPs (by telephone) should be checked in advance. In addition, longitudinal focus groups with relevant stakeholders are to be conducted to collect quantitative data as well as qualitative data on the views of those providing and receiving treatment.

There will be cooperation with the Specialized Outpatient Palliative Care Service Muenster to ensure sufficient case numbers and a low rate of missing values through partial use of the standard care data from the "Information System Palliative Care" (ISPC) program they use.

Conditions

Cancer; Heart Failure; COPD

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Prospective patients

Current palliative care patients who are discharged from the University Hospital to outpatient palliative care.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Structured pharmaceutical discharge management

Intervention Type: OTHER

These patients will receive structured pharmaceutical discharge management from inpatient to outpatient care.

Retrospective patients

Former palliative care patients who were discharged from the university hospital to outpatient palliative care.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Structured pharmaceutical discharge management

These patients will receive structured pharmaceutical discharge management from inpatient to outpatient care.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

All individual indications for general and specialised palliative care as part of routine clinical practice (e.g.):

• advanced, malignant tumour disease
• advanced, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Patients with advanced disease and limited life expectancy (approx. 12 months) Further care in the SOPC Muenster (prospective data) Sufficient understanding of the German language to be able to understand the information and consent form

Exclusion Criteria

Impossibility of understanding the information and declaration of consent.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University Hospital Munich

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University Hospital Muenster

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Christoph Klaas, Dr. rer. nat.

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Pharmacy of the University Hospital Muenster

Locations

University Hospital Muenster

Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Germany

Central Contacts

Christoph Klaas, Dr. rer. nat.

Role: CONTACT

christoph.klaas@ukmuenster.de

+49 251 83-48843

Facility Contacts

Philipp Lenz, Prof. Dr. med.

Role: primary

philipp.lenz@ukmuenster.de

+49 (0)251 8353052

Other Identifiers

2025-131-BO

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

2024-258-f-S

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id