To prevent readmissions, the clinical integration process must incorporate pharmacies to improve medication reconciliation, argues a piece from Hospitals & Health Networks.
As hospitals and healthcare providers work to improve outcomes and care for patients with chronic illnesses in keeping with the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, medication reconciliation can be an uphill struggle, particularly after discharge. It’s up to providers to determine medications are prescribed and administer in proper doses, that none of the prescribed medications interact adversely, and that patients continue to take them properly after discharge.
These concerns have led numerous hospitals to work with companies such as Comprehensive Pharmacy Services (CPS), a Memphis-based group that works with providers to integrate pharmaceutical care into the care continuum. Hospital leaders notify CPS ahead of each patient’s discharge, after which the company checks records of which medications the patient is taking and follows up with the patient or their caregivers. In many cases, this process may uncover information about patients’ failure to take medications and why, such as a patient telling the pharmacist they got so sick from initially taking their medication that the stopped taking it, according to Jeff Lackman, a CPS divisional vice president.
"We build these conversation trees or cascades based on the diagnosis the patient went home with," Lackman told H&HN. "Obviously, one for congestive heart failure is going to flow differently than one for pneumonia, which is going to flow differently than one for after a heart attack. We come in with ideas and suggestions, but we build this in partnership with the hospital. We don't have a one-size-fits-all answer to this, because every hospital's needs are going to be different."
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