Pharmacists can be part of successful care transitions interventions for patients with heart failure

New AHRQ report simultaneously published in the Annals of Internal Medicine

In a new Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) systematic review of the literature, pharmacists were highlighted as part of multicomponent complex interventions found in successful readmission programs for patients with heart failure.

The report on Transitional Care Interventions to Prevent Readmission for People with Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis was released by AHRQ and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine online first on May 27. AHRQ—part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services—is known for the high rigor of its evaluations.

The researchers sought to compare the effectiveness of different care transitions interventions in preventing readmissions. They searched the available literature and screened more than 2,400 studies for the 45 studies they ended up using. These studies were gold standard studies that were well designed.

“The two categories of interventions that reduced all-cause readmissions and mortality (home-visiting programs and multidisciplinary heart failure clinic interventions) were more likely to include teams of providers delivering the intervention (e.g., home visits that a nurse and pharmacist conducted together) than interventions that did not show efficacy (e.g., telemonitoring, primarily educational interventions),” said APhA Science Officer Patrick G. Clay, PharmD, FCCP, CCTI, in an e-mail. Clay is Professor of Pharmacotherapy at the University of North Texas System College of Pharmacy.

“Structured telephone support interventions (delivered primarily by nurses and pharmacists) were efficacious in reducing mortality but did not reduce all-cause readmissions,” Clay added.

Diana Yap, Senior Assistant Editor