Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacists cut readmissions

A partnership between a hospital and community pharmacy in the US state of Washington is showing signs of significantly reducing readmissions of heart failure patients. The program involves home visits from pharmacists in Seattle, with the ‘Heart to Heart’ trial also boosting medication adherence. Under the scheme pharmacists from the Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group visit patients with moderate to severe heart failure once a month for three months after hospital discharge, spending 60-90 minutes in each home on average. The pharmacists explain medications and record details of their interactions in an electronic health record system maintained by the Virginia Mason Heart Institute - which can be viewed by the patients’ cardiologist and other members of the health care team. The pilot will initially support 50 heart failure patients who are taking five or more medications, striving to reduce readmissions among these patients by half, and if successful the program will become part of the hospital’s standard post-discharge care protocol.

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