| dc.description.abstract | Abstract
Background: Patients with an impaired renal function have an increased risk of developing AKI. This
is more likely to happen when patients are at risk of dehydration, so called sick days, in combination
with medication such as diuretics. That is why it is important to prevent this combination. Good
collaboration between healthcare professionals could be one way to improve this.
Aim: To investigate what healthcare providers need to improve their collaboration to manage the use of
medication for patients with an impaired renal function during sick days.
Method: Pharmacists, GPs and hospital-based physicians have participated in semi-structured
interviews. The interview guide covered the following main topics: the errors surrounding the use of
medication, the collaboration between the different healthcare providers, sick days,training
requirements for the healthcare providers, and the provision of information to the patients. The
interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Then the analysis was carried out using NVivo
version 1.5.1.
Results: The following main topics emerged from the results: communication, protocols and
guidelines and requirements to optimize collaboration. On the one hand, the laboratory values were
increasingly communicated between healthcare providers in the past few years. On the other hand,
there was no communication about patients having a sick day. Also, there are currently no real
guidelines that support the collaboration to manage the use of medication in patients with an
impaired renal function during sick days. According to the caregivers, a guideline and improved care
systems are needed in order to improve collaboration to prevent AKI.
Conclusion: There are guidelines for the use of medication in patients with an impaired renal
function. Agreements will have to be made in order to comply with these guidelines. In addition, a
coordinated computer system could help to improve the collaboration during sick days. | |
