Title: Successful Integration of a Clinical Pharmacist into a Disease Management Unit
Abstract:ABSTRACT Aim To evaluate the impact of integrating a clinical pharmacist into a disease management unit to provide a clinical pharmacy review service for patients in the outpatient clinic and at home....ABSTRACT Aim To evaluate the impact of integrating a clinical pharmacist into a disease management unit to provide a clinical pharmacy review service for patients in the outpatient clinic and at home. Method This pilot study consisted of two phases—service planning, and implementation and evaluation. The service planning phase involved multidisciplinary consultation on the clinical pharmacist role. After completion of the service planning phase and service implementation, the service was evaluated for a 4‐month period through quantification of accuracy of the medication list on attendance at the outpatient clinic, number and type of medication problems identified by the pharmacist and number and type of interventions undertaken by the pharmacist. Results The clinical pharmacy review service was implemented in October 2005 and evaluation of the service continued until January 2006. 122 patients were seen by the pharmacist in the 4‐month period. The accuracy of the medication list increased from 12 to 24% pre‐implementation to 91 to 94% postimplementation. Of the patients interviewed by the pharmacist, 49% of the outpatient clinic patients and 83% of the home visit patients were identified as having medication‐related problems. 66 medication‐related problems were identified by the pharmacist at the home visits and 47 in the unit's outpatient clinic. Conclusion The success of the pilot resulted in the implementation and evaluation of the impact of integrating a clinical pharmacist to a disease management unit. The demonstrated positive outcomes have resulted in the ongoing provision of the clinical pharmacy review service with expansion to other clinics.Read More
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 5
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