Interprofessional Care Teams Reduce Medications Needed Post Discharge

Purpose: The United State health system is fractionated: most patients travel from location to location to see various clinicians about specific aspects of their health. The poor outcomes and high cost we currently see in the United States health system has challenged clinicians to explore better processes. This study sought to identify the potential impact of utilizing interprofessional transitional care (IPTC) teams in the primary care setting following hospitalization. One outcome measured was the relationship between pharmacist’s participation and number of medications a patient was taking after their IPTC visit. Electronic Health Records were utilized to extract patient data and it was analyzed using SPSS and R programming to examine relationships between patient populations, disease states, number of medications, and pharmacist intervention. This study was conducted as part of an overall investigation into benefits of IPTC teams in Primary Care. We expect that the number of the medications to be reduced for patients that had a pharmacist involved in their transitional care visit.