Effect of Pharmacist Interventions on Hospital Readmissions for Home-Based Primary Care Veterans
Background: Several studies indicate that when patients transition from one level of care to another, errors may occur. Pharmacists can play an integral role in the transitions of care process. At Michael E. DeBakey Veteran Affairs Medical Center, the Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) service has implemented a streamlined hospital discharge plan to improve 30-day readmission rates after 1 year of HBPC enrollment.
Methods: Our aim was to identify specific pharmacist interventions to improve the HBPC discharge process and ultimately, improve hospital readmission rates. A Plan-Do-Study-Act quality improvement project was initiated. We conducted a review of veterans enrolled in HBPC from October 2019 to March 2020.
Results: Of 175 patients assessed postdischarge, a medication reconciliation was completed by an HBPC pharmacist in 118 (67.4%) patients. Of the 118 medication reconciliations completed, 92 (78%) interventions were made by HBPC pharmacists. During the 6-month study period, 30-day hospital readmission rates decreased from 19% to 13%.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates several opportunities for interventions to lower readmission rates. Using the results from this study, education has been provided for the HBPC service and its readmission committee.
As the HBPC team continues to improve the discharge process, it is also important to highlight roles of the inpatient team who may assist with a smoother transition. For example, discharge summaries should be clear, complete, and concise, incorporating key elements from the hospital visit. Methods of communication on discharge should be efficient and understood by both inpatient and outpatient teams. Patients’ health literacy status should be considered when providing discharge instructions. Finally, patients should have a clear understanding of who is included in their primary care team should any questions arise. The potential interventions for HCPs highlighted in this study are critical for preventing adverse outcomes, improving patients’ quality of life, and decreasing hospital readmissions. However, implementing the streamlined discharge process was only step 1. Areas of improvement still exist to provide exceptional patient care.
Our goal is to increase pharmacist-led medication reconciliation after discharge to ≥ 80%. This will be assessed monthly after providing education to the HBPC team regarding the study results. The second goal is to maintain hospital readmission rates to ≤ 10%, which will be assessed with each quarterly review.
Strengths and Limitations
This study was one of the first to evaluate the impact of pharmacist intervention on improving patient outcomes in HBPC veterans. Additionally, only 1 investigator conducted the data collection, which decreased the opportunity for errors.
A notable limitation of this study is that the discharge processes may not be able to be duplicated in other HBPC settings due to variability in programs. Additionally, as this was a new discharge process, there were a few aspects that needed to be worked out in the beginning as it was established. Furthermore, this study did not clarify whether a medication reconciliation was conducted by a physician or nurse after discharge; therefore, this study cannot conclude that the medication interventions were solely attributed to pharmacists. Also this study did not assess readmissions for recurrent events only, which may have impacted the results in a different way from the current results that assessed readmission rates for any hospitalization. Other limitations include the retrospective study design at a single center.
Conclusions
This study outlines several opportunities for interventions to improve patient outcomes and aid in decreasing hospital readmission rates. Using the results from this study, education has been provided for the HBPC Service and its readmission committee. Additionally, the safety concerns identified have been addressed with inpatient and outpatient pharmacy leadership to improve the practices in both settings, prevent delays in patient care, and avoid future adverse outcomes. This project highlights the advantages of having pharmacists involved in transitions of care and demonstrates the benefit of HBPC pharmacists’ role in the streamlined discharge process. This project will be reviewed biannually to further improve the discharge process and quality of care for our veterans.
