Evaluation of a Novel Pharmacist-Delivered Adherence Improvement Service via Telehealth

Abstract

Nearly half of all patients prescribed a chronic medication do not adhere to their regimen. Conversion from a 30- to 90-day medication refill is associated with improved adherence. The objective of the study was to assess the change in proportion of days covered (PDC) in those who converted to a 90-day fill and those who did not after a telehealth pharmacist-delivered, medication adherence intervention. This retrospective review involved data collected between May and December 2018. Patients with ≤85% baseline PDC rates were targeted. One group included patients who converted to a 90-day fill after the pharmacist intervention. The comparator group did not convert to a 90-day fill. Differences in median end-of-year (EOY) PDC rates for each medication class were compared between groups. An alpha level of 0.05 was set a priori. Overall, 237 patients converted to a 90-day fill and 501 did not. There was no significant difference in age, sex, and total number of drugs per patient. A Mann–Whitney U test revealed statistically significant improvements in median EOY PDC in the group that converted to a 90-day fill (+9% vs. −3%, p < 0.001). Pharmacist-delivered telehealth interventions were associated with improved PDC rates in those who converted to a 90-day fill.

“This is streets ahead of what we used to do”: staff perceptions of virtual clinical pharmacy services in rural and remote Australian hospitals

“…Most studies focus on outpatient clinics and chronic disease management such as cardiology, diabetes and hypertension [ 16 – 18 ]. Research on virtual pharmacy models thus far has focussed on pilot and feasibility studies describing service implementations [ 19 ] or evaluation of outpatient clinics demonstrating improvements in surrogate end points [ 20 , 21 ] Few studies have evaluated the role of hospital staff in the implementation of virtual pharmacy services.…”