SCIENCE UPDATES
Community pharmacists preventing hospital readmissions Patrick Clay
As it becomes more common to find evidence of pharmacists providing direct patient care services in the literature, the spectrum of such services is also growing. In this installment of Science Updates, two seemingly distinct roles for pharmacists are highlighted—hospital discharge counseling and targeted medication therapy management (MTM) services—with one providing very positive clinical outcomes and the other a realistic economic projection when implementing a new service.
Rehospitalization prevention—the role for pharmacists Pharmacist involvement during transitions of care involving hospital discharge may be an important strategy to prevent and correct medication discrepancies and reduce costly rehospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits. In a prospective, randomized, open-label pilot study, researchers evaluated the effect of a pharmacy clinic visit focused on medication reconciliation and patient education after hospital discharge on the incidence of rehospitalization and ED visits and the resolution of medication discrepancies.1 Of the 61 participants in the study, 33 (54%) had medication discrepancies identified at discharge. Fifty percent of medication discrepancies were resolved in those randomized to the pharmacist intervention arm compared with 9.5% in the usual care arm (P = 0.015). Patients randomized to the intervention arm had significantly lower rates of the primary composite outcome of 30-day rehospitalization and ED visits compared with the usual care arm (0% versus 40.5%, P
Community pharmacists preventing hospital readmissions Patrick Clay
As it becomes more common to find evidence of pharmacists providing direct patient care services in the literature, the spectrum of such services is also growing. In this installment of Science Updates, two seemingly distinct roles for pharmacists are highlighted—hospital discharge counseling and targeted medication therapy management (MTM) services—with one providing very positive clinical outcomes and the other a realistic economic projection when implementing a new service.
Rehospitalization prevention—the role for pharmacists Pharmacist involvement during transitions of care involving hospital discharge may be an important strategy to prevent and correct medication discrepancies and reduce costly rehospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits. In a prospective, randomized, open-label pilot study, researchers evaluated the effect of a pharmacy clinic visit focused on medication reconciliation and patient education after hospital discharge on the incidence of rehospitalization and ED visits and the resolution of medication discrepancies.1 Of the 61 participants in the study, 33 (54%) had medication discrepancies identified at discharge. Fifty percent of medication discrepancies were resolved in those randomized to the pharmacist intervention arm compared with 9.5% in the usual care arm (P = 0.015). Patients randomized to the intervention arm had significantly lower rates of the primary composite outcome of 30-day rehospitalization and ED visits compared with the usual care arm (0% versus 40.5%, P
