The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the impact of clinical pharmacy specialist (CPS) involvement in the post-discharge period on 30-day readmission rates within a Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. Patients eligible for inclusion were discharged from a Veterans Affairs (VA) acute care facility with a principle or secondary diagnosis of heart failure (HF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or both HF and COPD from 15 October 2018 through 14 January 2019. CPSs functioning as a mid-level provider with a scope of practice conducted telephone and in-clinic medication management appointments within 7 and 21 days post-discharge for qualifying patients discharged with a principle or secondary diagnosis of HF or COPD. CPS appointments focused on medication reconciliation, ensuring continuity of care, disease state counseling, and medication management. By enhancing the role of the CPS in the post-discharge period, there was an observed decrease in 30-day COPD index (p = 0.35), HF index (p = 0.23), and all-cause (p = 0.62) readmission rates from pre- to post-intervention. The results of this intervention show that CPS intervention in the post-discharge period may reduce index and all-cause readmission rates for patients discharged with a principle or secondary discharge diagnosis of COPD or HF.
Background:Shared medical appointments (SMAs) are utilized across health care systems to improve access and quality of care, with limited evidence to support the use of SMAs to improve clinical outcomes and medication adherence among hypertensive patients. Objective: Improve access and quality of care provided within a Veterans Affairs health care system via implementation of a hypertension SMA to improve clinical outcomes and medication adherence. Methods: Veterans were eligible for enrollment in the SMA if they received care within the health care system, were aged ≥18 years, were receiving at least 2 antihypertensive medications, and had systolic blood pressure (SBP) >140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) >90 mm Hg. A pre/post cohort design was used to evaluate the improvement in antihypertensive medication adherence as well as the change in SBP and DBP for all Veterans who attended at least 2 SMAs. Results: Twenty-one Veterans participated in at least 2 SMAs and were included in the analysis; 76.2% had a reduction in SBP with an overall average decrease of −8.3 mm Hg (P = .02). The proportion of Veterans considered to have controlled blood pressure (BP; <140/90 mm Hg) increased from 14.3% at baseline to 42.9% during the SMA period (P = .03). There was no significant difference found for the proportion of Veterans considered adherent to their prescribed antihypertensive medications (95.2% vs 85.7%, respectively; P = .50). Conclusions: SBP significantly improved for patients enrolled in a pharmacist-led SMA at a VA health care system, and the proportion of patients considered to have controlled BP increased significantly.
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