Publication: IMPACT OF PHARMACISTS EMBEDDED IN A GERIATRIC MEDICINE FELLOWSHIP
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Date
2024-04-18
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Abstract
Maine Dartmouth Geriatric Medicine (MDGM) provides primary and specialty consultative care to adults age 65 and older using an interprofessional team approach consisting of geriatricians, social workers, nurses, and medical assistants as well as student learners including medical fellows, residents, and students. The practice site also houses the Maine-Dartmouth Geriatric Medicine Fellowship. In July 2020, the first Husson University School of Pharmacy (HUSOP) pharmacy practice faculty member was embedded into MDGM, followed by a second faculty member joining the practice site in July 2021. Both faculty worked to establish an interprofessional pharmacist-led medication review service with each offering a 6-week Ambulatory Care Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) for final-year Doctor of Pharmacy students throughout the academic year. For each patient visit, the pharmacy team provides a comprehensive medication review with the patient and then offers recommendations to providers regarding medication management such as addressing falls and mobility issues, polypharmacy and adverse drug events, affordability, and other common geriatric syndromes. This is an ongoing retrospective study in which the historical “Patient Experience Survey” data from MDGM patient visits that occurred in July 2019-July 2020 (before pharmacists started at MDGM), July 2020-July 2021 (first pharmacist started at MDGM), and July 2021-2022 (second pharmacist started at MDGM) is currently being collected. The “Patient Experience Survey” contains two medication-related questions including: “Did someone in this provider’s office review your medications with you?” and “Did someone in this provider’s office talk about the cost of your prescription medicine?” For each of these two questions, the percentage of patients who answered “Yes, definitely” or “Yes, mostly” and will be reviewed to observe if there was an improvement in response rate with the embedding of the pharmacist(s) at MDGM.