Benefits of a Clinical Pharmacist in Outpatient Diabetes Disease State Management

Abstract

Diabetes is a chronic disease state affecting millions of patients, many of which have uncontrolled diabetes and not under a physician's care. The economic and health impacts that a pharmacist can have on patients overall health is well known. As an increasing number of patients suffer from uncontrolled diabetes and its complications which makes the role of pharmacists more important than ever to provide patients with knowledge of the many therapeutic options available, appropriate self-testing techniques, and other important lifestyle modifications. The role of pharmacists has expanded to include ambulatory care in an outpatient setting. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of pharmacist involvement in diabetes management in an ambulatory clinic, where there previously has been no pharmacist participation. Comparing data from a pilot study performed without pharmacist involvement, pharmacists have been able to achieve better Hgb A1C reductions than the pilot study performed in fiscal year 16 (FY16) at an average of 3.36 ± 1.76. Although the sample size of patients was small at only 5, these are promising results of the impact that in depth patient education can have on improving outcomes.