Impact of an Automatic Therapeutic Interchange Program on Discharge Medication Selection

Abstract

This brief report describes the effect of an automatic therapeutic interchange program on patients' discharge medications. Pharmacists at a medical center were authorized to convert various nonformulary medications to formulary equivalents. To determine which medications were prescribed to the patients upon hospital discharge, automatic interchanges during June 2001 to September 2001 were identified. Of those identified, 94 met study inclusion criteria. Complete information was obtained for 46 patients. Inpatient and outpatient pharmacy records were reviewed retrospectively for a 3-month period postdischarge. In the majority (67.4%) of cases, the patient's preadmission medication was continued on an outpatient basis. In 17.4% of the cases, the therapeutic interchange medication was continued on an outpatient basis. In 15.3% of the cases, patients were prescribed medications that were neither preadmission nor the interchanged medications. These results demonstrate that an automatic interchange program has the potential to influence outpatient therapy.