(1310) Improving Care Through Community-based Specialty Pharmacist Intervention

Objectives: The objective of this retrospective observational cohort study is to analyze and assess the relationship between community-based specialty pharmacist interventions and patient outcomes, focusing on high-cost specialty medications. Pharmacists play a crucial role by intervening on therapy-related issues to improve outcomes for their patients. Pharmacist intervention has been shown to lead to sustained therapeutic efficacy for patients taking chronic medications, improved quality of life for those experiencing medication-related adverse effects, and more consistent dosing for those most at risk of non-adherence to treatment. Community-based specialty pharmacists screen patients for these therapy-related issues in their daily course of practice in order to carry out appropriate interventions. The details of these interventions are recorded within the patient management system using a care plan documentation form. Open care plans are reviewed at appropriate intervals as frequently as monthly in order to ensure adequate progress, and then closed when the issue is resolved.

Methods: The study site is a community-based specialty pharmacy located in a large Midwestern metropolitan area, serving approximately 1,000 patients with disease states including hyperlipidemia, HIV, asthma, hepatitis, and chronic inflammatory conditions. This study will review care plans closed by a pharmacist at the study site between 1/1/21 and 12/31/22. Completed patient care plans will be reviewed for therapy-related issues including low adherence, adverse effects, or efficacy issues. The primary endpoint is the overall outcome of each care plan as documented by the closing pharmacist. Secondary endpoints include duration of open care plan in days, type and number of pharmacist interventions required, improvement in proportion of days covered (PDC) for adherence issues and resolution of adverse effects and efficacy issues, based on the course of the patient’s therapy. Descriptive statistics will be used for the primary endpoint. Correlation will be assessed between the duration of the care plan and its final outcome using the point-biserial correlation. The chi-square test of independence will also be utilized to assess the relationship between the type of care plan and its final outcome. There are 70 care plans available in the study period; a sample size of n=67 care plans would be sufficient to detect a correlation of r=0.3 with 70% power and a two-sided alpha of 0.05.

Results: N/A

Conclusions: N/A