Impact of a Pharmacist-Led Intervention Program on the Readmission Rates of Elderly Heart Failure Patients

Abstract

Purpose: Heart failure accounts for over 6.5 million hospital days and an estimated $37.2 billion is spent on heart failure management annually in the United States.1,2 Since the establishment of Hospital Readmission Reduction Program by Affordable Care Act, hospitals have been trying to reduce the hospital readmission rate of all the patients. The purpose of this study is to determine whether pharmacist intervention would reduce the readmission rate of elderly patients aged 60 years and over. Methods: A pilot study compared to historical control group conducted at a teaching hospital. Retrospective chart review was conducted for heart failure elderly patients admitted to the hospital from March 1st, 2013 to June 30th, 2014. Heart Failure elderly patients admitted from July 1st, 2014 to October 31st, 2015 received the pharmacist intervention during their hospital stay including post discharge follow up. The primary outcome was the readmission of the patients within 30-day post discharge. Results: The primary outcome occurred in 12 of 97 patients in the intervention group (12.4%) and 20 of 80 patients in the control group (25.0%). Of the heart failure patients included in the study (N=177), there was statistically significant reduction in the patients in the intervention group compared to the control group. Conclusion: Pharmacist intervention significantly reduced the primary outcome of readmission to the hospital within 30-day post discharge among the elderly population. Future studies can focus on readmission rate of patients with other disease states.