Telephone interviews
MIH
A primary outcome of the present study was to evaluate whether the offer to contact the MIH influenced patient’s concerns and perception of safety in relation to their medicines (An interview guide was developed to assess patient satisfaction with the medicine information obtained during hospitalization, at discharge and given by the MIH. In order to investigate patients concerns and perception of safety in relation to medicines use, already validated questions from the Beliefs About Medicine Questionnaire proposed by Horne et al. [The questions in the interview guide were pilottested by 12 patients and 5 healthcare professionals, and the wording of some of the questions was subsequently optimized accordingly. All eligible participants were interviewed by telephone within 2–4 weeks after discharge to ensure that the patients remembered details about their hospital stay. The telephone interviews were performed by author one, two and three.Participants were rated as non-responders if they declined to be interviewed or if they did not answer the phone within five attempts on five different days over a two-week period. In addition, participants were also rated as a non-responder if they showed cognitive or/and communicative problems during the interview, making it difficult to complete the interview, or if the patient was readmitted or deceased.