Farris 2014.

Study characteristics
Methods	Randomised controlled trial
Participants	936 participants randomised (314 to enhanced medication review, 315 to minimal medication review, 313 to control) Participants admitted to departments of internal medicine, family medicine, cardiology and orthopaedics at a Midwestern Academic Health Centre in the USA Mean age: 61.0 years Mean number of drugs: 11.0
Interventions	Participants in the minimal and enhanced intervention groups received medication reconciliation at admission and pharmacist visits every 2 to 3 days for patient education during inpatient stay, discharge counselling and discharge medication list. Counselling was tailored for each participant and focused on goals of therapy, medication administration and barriers to adherence including cost and patient concerns. Participants in the enhanced intervention group also received a telephone call 3 to 5 days post‐discharge, and primary care physician and community pharmacist received a discharge care plan focused on medication changes and recommendations. The care plan was faxed to the primary care physician and to the community pharmacist within 24 hours of discharge but usually within 6 hours. The care plan included the discharge medication list, plans for dosage adjustments and monitoring and recommendations for preventing adverse drug events, with participant‐specific concerns such as adherence or cost issues highlighted. The control group received usual care. Usual care was medication reconciliation at admission according to hospital policy, nurse discharge counselling and a discharge medication list for patients. The usual care discharge summary was transcribed and received in the mail by the primary care physician several days or weeks after discharge.
Outcomes	Primary outcome: Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) Secondary outcomes: adverse events, preventable adverse events as a composite variable of combined hospital readmission, emergency department visit or unscheduled general practitioner office visit during 30‐day and 90‐day follow‐up periods
Notes	Funding: the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (1RO1 HL082711). Drs Carter, Kaboli and Christensen were also supported by the Comprehensive Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation (CADRE), Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Health Services Research and Development Service (HFP 04–149).
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomised according to a statistician‐generated randomisation scheme.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Allocated to groups by sequentially numbered envelopes
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Participants and staff were aware of interventions, but not whether allocation was to minimal or enhanced group medication review.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Mortality (all‐cause)	Low risk	Records from the primary care provider and the pharmacy were obtained for all participants. Hospitalisation records were obtained from the university hospital and from community hospitals, when such an event occurred. Research staff were blinded.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Hospital readmissions (all‐cause)	Low risk	Trained research assistants contacted all participants by telephone to gather self‐reported adverse events and symptoms and self‐reported healthcare utilisation. Primary care provider and pharmacy records were obtained for all participants. Hospitalisation records were obtained from the university hospital and from community hospitals when such an event occurred. Research staff were blinded when assessing readmission data
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Hospital emergency department contacts (all‐cause)	Low risk	Trained research assistants contacted all participants by telephone to gather self‐reported adverse events and symptoms and self‐reported healthcare utilisation. Primary care provider and pharmacy records were obtained for all participants. Hospitalisation records were obtained from the university hospital and from community hospitals, when such an event occurred. Research staff were blinded when assessing emergency department contact assessment.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Adverse drug events	Low risk	Trained research assistants contacted all participants by telephone to gather self‐reported adverse events and symptoms and self‐reported healthcare utilisation Primary care provider and pharmacy records were obtained for all participants. Research staff were blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) Mortality (all‐cause)	Unclear risk	Loss to follow‐up: medication review 3% (16/623) participants (3% (8/312) minimal intervention group and 3% (8/311) in the enhanced intervention group) and control 2% (5/313 participants). Unclear whether participants lost to follow‐up had mortality data available (i.e. loss to follow‐up due to death).
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) Hospital readmissions (all‐cause)	Unclear risk	Discrepancies in the trial publication between the number of participants reported as study completers and the number of participants included in the analysis of hospital readmissions.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) Hospital emergency department contacts (all‐cause)	Unclear risk	Discrepancies in the trial publication between the number of participants reported as study completers and the number of participants included in the analysis of hospital emergency department contacts.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) Adverse drug events	Unclear risk	Discrepancies in the trial publication between the number of participants reported as study completers and the number of participants included in the analysis of adverse events.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Relevant outcomes were included in trial and were similar to information provided on www.clinicaltrials.gov.
Contamination bias	High risk	No cluster‐randomisation.
Other bias	Low risk	No evidence of other types of bias.