Impact of Adding Pharmacists and Comprehensive Medication Management to a Medical Group's Transition of Care Services.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the impact of pharmacist-provided transition of care (TOC) services on hospital readmissions. METHODS: Starting March 2014, TOC services were provided to all hospitalized patients from an at-risk medical group. Data covering all inpatient and outpatient services and prescription drugs were retrieved for all adult patients discharged between January 2010 and December 2018. The overall impact of TOC was estimated using a generalized estimating equation with logistic regression. Longitudinal TOC effects were estimated using generalized estimating equation in an interrupted time series model. Parallel analyses were conducted using data from an affiliated medical group in a neighboring county without access to the TOC intervention. RESULTS: The study included 13,256 hospital discharges for adult patients for the 30-day readmission analysis and 10,740 discharges for the 180 days analysis. The TOC program reduced 30-day readmission risk by 34.9% [odds ratio (OR)=0.651 (range, 0.590-0.719)] and 180-day readmissions by 33.4% [OR=0.666 (range, 0.604-0.735)]. The interrupted time series results found the 30-day readmission rate to be stable over the pre-TOC period (OR=0.00; not significant) then to decreased by 1.5% per month in the post-TOC period [OR=0.985 (range, 0.980-0.991)]. For 180-day readmissions, risk decreased by 1% per month after TOC implementation [OR=0.990 (range, 0.984-0.996)]. Referral to the medical group's pre-existing Priority Care clinic also reduced readmission risk. Results from the comparison medical group found 180-day readmission declined by 1% per month after March 2014 [OR=0.990 (0.891-1.00)]. CONCLUSIONS: Adding a pharmacist-led TOC program to the medical group's existing outpatient services reduced 30- and 180-day readmissions by "bending the curve" for readmission risk over time.

Impact of Pharmacy Intervention on Prior Authorization Success and Efficiency at a University Medical Center.

BACKGROUND: Prior authorizations (PAs) may improve appropriate use of prescription medications. Despite potential savings for health insurance plans, the PA process is time consuming for the ordering provider, pharmacy, and patient. The UC Davis Health System (UCDHS) has created a centralized pharmacy-run clinic PA process. OBJECTIVE: To compare the mean PA processing time between the new centralized clinic and usual care and provide secondary endpoints for PA approval rates, time to prescription fill, time to prescription pick-up, total staff time, and estimated labor costs. METHODS: This is a prospective observational study comparing sequential PA requests at the UCDHS centralized clinic (intervention) and other UCDHS clinics (usual care) between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2014. The Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test was used to compare dichotomous outcomes (approval/denial rates) between the 2 groups, controlling for insurance type. A generalized linear model was applied for comparing the continuous outcomes (PA process time, time to first fill, time to pick-up, and cost) with insurance type as covariate. RESULTS: For the intervention group, 47 PAs were evaluated, and 77 PAs were evaluated in the usual care group. The average PA process time was 0.53 days for the intervention group versus 7.02 days for usual care (P < 0.001), and the PA approval rate was 93% for the intervention group versus 68% for usual care (P < 0.002). The mean time to fill was 2.49 days and 5.52 days for the intervention and usual care clinics, respectively (P = 0.02). The pick-up percentage was 75% versus 52% for intervention and usual care, respectively (P < 0.001). The intervention clinic spent a significantly lower mean time processing PAs (15 minutes vs. 64 minutes) compared with the usual care clinics (P < 0.001). It is estimated that the mean total labor cost per PA at the intervention clinic was $11.50 compared with $37.50 for the usual care clinics (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy-led interventions in PA processing resulted in a statistically significant benefit in improving time to PA approval, time to first fill, and time to pick-up. DISCLOSURES: No outside funding supported this study. The authors report no conflicting interests. Melnikow and Cutler contributed the study concept and design, with assistance from the other authors. Lester, Barca, and She collected the data, and Xin performed all statistical analysis. Cutler was the major contributor to manuscript preparation, with assistance from the other authors.