Impact of early in-hospital medication review by clinical pharmacists on health services utilization

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 2; p. e0170495
• Main Authors: Hohl, Corinne M, Partovi, Nilu, Ghement, Isabella, Wickham, Maeve E, McGrail, Kimberlyn, Reddekopp, Lisa N, Sobolev, Boris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 13-02-2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Adverse drug reactions; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis; British Columbia; Collaboration; Comorbidity; Confidence intervals; Control; Departments; Drug stores; Drug Therapy - statistics & numerical data; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions - diagnosis; Drugs; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Epidemiology; Female; Geriatrics; Health aspects; Health risks; Health services utilization; Hospital emergency services; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Humans; Length of Stay - statistics & numerical data; Long-term care; Male; Medical care utilization; Medical personnel; Medical research; Medical screening; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Modelling; Nurses; Older people; Patient safety; Patients; People and Places; Pharmacists; Pharmacy Service, Hospital - methods; Physicians; Pilot Projects; Practice; Prospective Studies; Public health; Quality; Quality control; Quality management; Randomization; Reduction; Reproducibility of Results; Risk allocation; Risk Assessment - methods; Risk Assessment - statistics & numerical data; Risk Factors; Risk groups; Sex crimes; Statistical analysis; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170495

Adverse drug events are a leading cause of emergency department visits and unplanned admissions, and prolong hospital stays. Medication review interventions aim to identify adverse drug events and optimize medication use. Previous evaluations of in-hospital medication reviews have focused on interventions at discharge, with an unclear effect on health outcomes. We assessed the effect of early in-hospital pharmacist-led medication review on the health outcomes of high-risk patients.
We used a quasi-randomized design to evaluate a quality improvement project in three hospitals in British Columbia, Canada. We incorporated a clinical decision rule into emergency department triage pathways, allowing nurses to identify patients at high-risk for adverse drug events. After randomly selecting the first eligible patient for participation, clinical pharmacists systematically allocated subsequent high-risk patients to medication review or usual care. Medication review included obtaining a best possible medication history and reviewing the patient's medications for appropriateness and adverse drug events. The primary outcome was the number of days spent in-hospital over 30 days, and was ascertained using administrative data. We used median and inverse propensity score weighted logistic regression modeling to determine the effect of pharmacist-led medication review on downstream health services use.
Of 10,807 high-risk patients, 6,416 received early pharmacist-led medication review and 4,391 usual care. Their baseline characteristics were balanced. The median number of hospital days was reduced by 0.48 days (95% confidence intervals [CI] = 0.00 to 0.96; p = 0.058) in the medication review group compared to usual care, representing an 8% reduction in the median length of stay. Among patients under 80 years of age, the median number of hospital days was reduced by 0.60 days (95% CI = 0.06 to 1.17; p = 0.03), representing 11% reduction in the median length of stay. There was no significant effect on emergency department revisits, admissions, readmissions, or mortality.
We were limited by our inability to conduct a randomized controlled trial, but used quasi-random patient allocation methods and propensity score modeling to ensure balance between treatment groups, and administrative data to ensure blinded outcomes ascertainment. We were unable to account for alternate level of care days, and therefore, may have underestimated the treatment effect in frail elderly patients who are likely to remain in hospital while awaiting long-term care.
Early pharmacist-led medication review was associated with reduced hospital-bed utilization compared to usual care among high-risk patients under 80 years of age, but not among those who were older. The results of our evaluation suggest that medication review by pharmacists in the emergency department may impact the length of hospital stay in select patient populations.