Drug prescribing in hospital as experienced by general practitioners: East versus West Germany

Abstract

Drugs prescribed by the general practitioner (GP) are often changed during hospitalization. This study set out to test the hypothesis that the extent of drug change and the information provided by the hospital determines the GPs' assessment of hospital co-operation. The perception of drug change and hospital co-operation may also be influenced by the degree of institutional separation of primary and secondary care. Therefore we compared GPs' respective attitudes in 'East' and 'West' Germany.