Follow-up Evaluations Are Essential.

One prospective, quasi-experimental 3-month study evaluated the pharmacist-led, postdischarge telephone follow-up (TFU) of 200 adult patients receiving at least 10 prescription medications for chronic conditions.4 Three members of the hospital's pharmacy team conducted the TFU to assess medication-related problems, adherence, and patients' ability to manage a drug regimen.4 TFU was scheduled within 10 days of discharge, at 1 month, and at the start of the third month after discharge.4 Results showed that pharmacist-led TFU reduced 30- and 90-day hospital readmission rates, with 9.9% of readmissions among those in the intervention group (P < .001) and 15.2% (P = .021) in the control group.4 References 1. Following up with patients is a critical component of the medication therapy management (MTM) services pharmacists provide to identify adherence issues, detect adverse drug reactions (ADRs), educate patients, and review potential drug interactions.1 The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality considers pharmacists to be the ideal health care professionals for following up with patients about medications.2 If an MTM consult pinpoints a problem, pharmacists play a key role in facilitating its resolution (Figure1-4). Participants were included if they were between aged 45 and 80 years, had experienced more than 2 chronic medical conditions, and were taking more than 5 medications.3 Patients in the intervention group received MTM services from clinical pharmacists in person and by phone. [Extracted from the article]