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Impact of a Unit-Based Clinical Pharmacist on Communication of Medication Information in an Orthopedic Hospital

  • Original Article
  • Published:
HSS Journal ®

Abstract

Background

Medication management, a complex yet essential part of patient care, requires that clinicians and patients understand indication, dosage, frequency, and adverse effects in order to maximize benefits and minimize errors, as well as to transition patients from hospital to home. Clinical pharmacists improve care transitions and safety by interacting with patients, prescribers, and nurses on medication management and self-care. However, little is known on the use of clinical pharmacists on interdisciplinary teams at the unit level within orthopedics.

Questions/Purposes

This study sought to measure the impact of unit-based clinical pharmacists on patient perceptions of communication specific to medication during hospitalization at an orthopedic specialty hospital and on the frequency of medication errors.

Methods

A retrospective, quasi-experimental, two-group evaluative design with nonequivalent controls was used. Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data on six inpatient units was analyzed 6 months before and 6 months after assignment of clinical pharmacists to half these units. Data specific to questions that measure quality of communication as well as medication understanding were analyzed. Additionally, data on medication error frequency were collected and compared between units with and without clinical pharmacists.

Results

A total of 2022 surveys were analyzed. The percentage of patients who reported receipt of medication information and medication understanding increased significantly after the implementation of unit-based clinical pharmacists. Comparison of intervention and non-intervention groups showed no statistically significant difference in the frequency of medication errors.

Conclusion

Results suggest that a clinical pharmacist assigned to an inpatient unit in orthopedics significantly influences patient perceptions of communication about and understanding of their medications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 E. 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA

    Kelly Guerin PharmD, BCPS, Patricia Quinlan PhD, MPA, RN, CPHQ, Robert Wessolock PharmD, MS, RPH, Stephanie Goldberg MSN, RN, NEA- BC & Joseph T. Nguyen MPH

  2. Center for Health Policy, New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 617 W. 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Patricia W. Stone PhD, RN, FAAN

Authors
  1. Kelly Guerin PharmD, BCPS
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  2. Patricia Quinlan PhD, MPA, RN, CPHQ
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  3. Robert Wessolock PharmD, MS, RPH
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  4. Stephanie Goldberg MSN, RN, NEA- BC
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  5. Joseph T. Nguyen MPH
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  6. Patricia W. Stone PhD, RN, FAAN
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kelly Guerin PharmD, BCPS.

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Conflict of Interest

Kelly Guerin, PharmD, BCPS, Patricia Quinlan, PhD, MPA, RN, CPHQ, Robert Wessolock, PharmD, MS, RPh, Stephanie Goldberg, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, and Patricia W. Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN, declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Joseph T. Nguyen, MPH, reports a grant to his institution from the Clinical Translational Science Center (CTSC), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), grant #UL1-RR024996, outside the submitted work. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NCATS.

Human/Animal Rights

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was waived from all patients for being included in this study.

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Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the online version of this article.

Additional information

Level of Evidence: Level III: Retrospective therapeutic study

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Guerin, K., Quinlan, P., Wessolock, R. et al. Impact of a Unit-Based Clinical Pharmacist on Communication of Medication Information in an Orthopedic Hospital. HSS Jrnl 16 (Suppl 2), 333–338 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-019-09739-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-019-09739-2

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