Reduction of 30-Day Hospital Readmissions after Patient-centric Telephonic Medication Therapy Management Services

Abstract

Background

Transitional care programs are a growing topic in health care systems across the country, with a focus on achieving a reduction in hospital readmissions and improving patient and medication safety. Numerous strategies have been employed and studied to determine successful approaches to patient transition from the hospital setting to the home setting. Pharmacist-mediated postdischarge telephonic outreach has demonstrated decreased hospital readmission rates in multiple hospital systems.

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacist-facilitated telephonic medication therapy management (MTM) services on reducing hospital readmissions.

Methods

A retrospective chart analysis (n = 314) was performed for patients who received MTM services following hospital discharge between February 23, 2014 and July 4, 2014. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause readmission. The secondary outcomes were identification of pharmacist interventions for and recommendations about medication-related problems and discrepancies found between the patients' reported medication list and the hospital discharge medication list.

Results

The data revealed no statistically significant difference in hospital readmission rates between the intervention and control groups (odds ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.68–1.60). Pharmacists intervened on 189 medication-related problems via facsimile to the prescriber (35.7% of charts), contacted prescribers by phone for 23 medication-related or health-related issues, and identified 823 medication list discrepancies (78.34% of charts).

Conclusion

Although the provision of telephonic MTM services by pharmacists did not result in an improvement in the readmission rate during this study period, pharmacists were able to intervene on numerous medication-related problems and medication list discrepancies.