Medication-focused telehealth interventions to reduce the hospital readmission rate: a systematic review

Abstract

Transition of care from hospital to community is a period that carries significant risk for medication errors, potentially leading to hospital readmission, and causing financial and emotional strain on patients and caregivers. Telehealth technologies offer promising solutions to reduce hospital readmission. Therefore, the goal of this systematic review was to examine the effect of interdisciplinary telehealth post-discharge services that include a medication-focused component on hospital readmissions. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a search was conducted in five scientific databases using keywords related to hospital readmission, medication therapy, and telehealth interventions. The review focused on randomised controlled trials published between 2000 and 2023, written in English. Out of 1,144 papers screened, 23 were included in the review. These studies targeted telehealth service provision to people over 60 years old with chronic illnesses. Various post-discharge telehealth interventions, including medication-focused components, were examined. Most of the interventions were multifaceted, embedded medication-focused interventions with reminders for diet, exercise, symptom check-ups, and education. Among the 23 included papers, 10 studies demonstrated success in reducing readmissions. Seven of these studies targeted patients with heart failure (HF). Overall, this review highlights the potential of telehealth medication-focused interventions in reducing hospital readmission rates in patients with HF.