What Can Your Pharmacist Do for You? Role of Collaborative Drug Therapy Management in Hospice (QI641)

Abstract

•Describe and explain the role of collaborative drug therapy management (CDTM) in community and inpatient hospice as it applies to physicians, pharmacists, and nurses.•Illustrate an innovative care model that emphasizes patient-centered, team-based care linking system and patient-level outcomes to manage individualized drug therapy in hospice.•Evaluate reduced pharmacoeconomic expenditures through optimal use of medications in CDTM. American healthcare systems, including community-based organizations, are grappling with rising healthcare costs and medication-related expenditures. Annually, more than 1.5 million preventable adverse events are caused by inappropriate use of medications. This costs our healthcare system $290 billion annually. Rising drug costs and medication safety concerns provide a rationale for increased clinical pharmacist collaborative medication management, especially in the hospice setting. In this poster presentation, we describe our innovative approach of CDTM. The process and requirements for this approach will be presented using a Massachusetts-based hospice as an example. CDTM allows a clinical pharmacist to therapeutically assess and identify patients' medication related needs and act as an extension of the physician. The goal is to optimize medication-related outcomes and includes selection, initiation, monitoring, and adjusting medications as defined in the CDTM agreement. Additionally, this quality improvement project evaluates the benefit of a pharmacist as a member of the interdisciplinary team and thus manage the overall pharmaceutical budget. Telephonic and/or virtual visit medication therapy management will be provided by clinical pharmacist(s) to hospice patients within two teams (n=160). Each patient's medical record will be reviewed and concurrently monitored on admission and subsequent IDT sessions with the entire team. Validity to be measured as a prospective cohort study. The teams that utilize a hospice pharmacist will see an increase in their Consumer Assessment of Heathcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) scores and overall decrease in medication costs by 25% versus those teams that did not. Additionally, it is anticipated that over 500 drug therapy related matters will be resolved. This tailored care aims to improve quality of patient outcomes by symptom improvement, increase patient satisfaction and quality of life, and manage costs. This study highlighted the role of pharmacists in managing medications for hospice patients and described a clear path for a CDTM.