Evaluating an integrated clinical pharmacy service model in an ambulatory cardiac clinic- a single centre study

Abstract Background Evidence suggests that multidisciplinary cardiology clinics improve patient outcomes. Currently, there is limited data on the type of pharmacist-led interventions occurring in cardiac ambulatory clinics in the Australian setting. Purpose The primary aim of this pilot audit is to examine the frequency and type of pharmacist-led interventions in the ambulatory clinics of this specialist hospital. The secondary aim is to assess factors associated with hospital readmissions within 30 days of Pharmacists' reviews. Methods A retrospective pilot audit was conducted for patients who attended an integrated multidisciplinary Heart Failure (HF) and Hypertension (HTN) clinic from April 2023 to February 2024. Patients’ demographics, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), and the number and types of pharmacist interventions and readmission data 30 days post clinic review were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate patient characteristics and logistic regression for hospital readmissions. Results A total of 398 patients were reviewed by pharmacists, with 300 (75%) from the HF clinics and 98 (25%) from the HTN clinics. Patients’ median age was 63± 14.8 years and median CCI was 4± 3.7. Pharmacists documented medication histories for all patients (100%) and provided 355 recommendations, of which 213 (60%) were actioned by the cardiologist. Pharmacists had a face-to-face consultation and provided education and counselling to 175 (44%) patients. The most common types of interventions were related to guideline-directed prescribing and deprescribing (68, 39%), followed by up-titration of current therapies (61, 35%). Pharmacists also provided education on medication adherence and lifestyle modifications (28, 16%) as well as optimizing medications related to other comorbidities (18, 10%). A total of 8 patients (2%) were re-admitted l within 30 days of clinic review from either heart failure exacerbation or hypertensive crisis. Patients who had a face-to-face consultation and education with a pharmacist were less likely to be readmitted within 30 days (P=0.048). However, none of the other predictors tested for readmission such as age (P= 0.572), gender (0.296), history of non-compliance (0.834), CCI (0.984) or a diagnosis of HF or HTN (0.473) were predictors for readmission within 30 days of clinic review. Conclusion Pharmacists play an integral role in the cardiac ambulatory setting by providing expert medication advice and patient education to optimize patients’ outcomes. This study demonstrates that the activities performed by pharmacists working in Australian cardiac clinics are consistent with other international ambulatory clinics. The study also identified opportunities to develop a similar service for other ambulatory clinics at this hospital such as lipid and atrial fibrillation clinics. Additionally, further research is required to assess long term benefit of pharmacist led interventions on cardiac patients.