The Impact of a Pharmacist's Participation on Hospitalists' Rounds

Abstract

Background Expanding the role of pharmacists in the hospital setting has the potential to positively impact the quality of patient care and provide cost savings. Previous studies have shown that integrating pharmacists into rounding teams can enhance patient care through interventions at the point of assessment and prescribing. This study examines these potential benefits at a community hospital that does not have formal hospitalist rounds and in which the pharmacists must make recommendations via written communication. Objective The primary objective was to identify the number of interventions and to determine how to optimally utilize a pharmacist for a group of 19 hospitalists. Secondary objectives included estimating pharmacist time invested and cost savings. Methods Initially, methods in this study included reviewing patient medication profiles and informally rounding with the hospitalists. Interventions were performed at the time of rounding. After 2 weeks of rounding, methods were altered to improve the efficiency of the pharmacist's time. Patient profiles were reviewed and interventions were performed by written communication. Results A total of 386 patients were reviewed, with 117 interventions discovered. Fifty-eight verbal interventions were made during rounds with a 93% acceptance rate. Fifty-nine written interventions were made in the second part of the study with a 76% acceptance rate. The pharmacist spent an average of 10 minutes reviewing each patient profile, which resulted in a savings of $16 per hour of time invested. An actual cost savings of $3,900 was produced by 64 of the interventions, and the potential cost savings of the remaining 53 interventions exceeded $100,000. Conclusion Opportunities for pharmacist interventions exist within a hospitalists' team and the potential benefits to patient care, along with the actual and potential cost savings, should justify creating collaborations between pharmacists and hospitalists.

Descriptive Analysis of Acceptance by Prescribers and Economic Benefit of Pharmacist Recommended Interventions in a Critical Care Unit

“…21,22 Potential cost avoidance associated with pharmacist interventions was calculated by using evidence based information in the medical literature (Table 4). [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Similar to our study, several other studies evaluated medical literature to calculate cost avoidance per intervention. For example, Campbell et al conducted a comprehensive MEDLINE search to identify several studies which evaluated cost avoidance for different types of clinical pharmacy interventions.…”

Opportunities and Challenges in the New Emerging Role of Clinical Pharmacists in Ethiopia: Systematic Review

“…Previous studies have shown that integrating pharmacists into rounding teams can enhance patient care through interventions at the point of assessment and prescribing [14].…”

Analysis of Cost Avoidance From Pharmacy Students' Clinical Interventions at a Psychiatric Hospital

“…A comprehensive MEDLINE search yielded 4 studies which evaluated cost avoidance for different types of clinical pharmacy interventions. 26,27,34,35 Each study was reviewed to establish an average cost avoidance value for the types of clinical interventions performed. These studies then were compared and the results averaged with those of Rx Medi-Trend to yield an overall cost avoidance value for each type of clinical intervention.…”