Home pharmacist visits seek to cut readmission

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – A new study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of home visits from pharmacists with instant access to a patient’s medical history and medications, in an effort to reduce costly hospital readmissions.

Through a one-year, $98,000 grant from the Center for Technology and Aging, the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy clinical pharmacist Camille Charbonneau has been hired to help recruit between 100 and 200 patients to participate in the study. The study will pair home visitation with the use of an ER-Card, a computerized medical information card system developed by Professional Records Inc., of West Warwick, to review prescriptions and other medication-related systems, and assist patients in setting up their own electronic health records.

The study’s project team includes URI Pharmacy Associate Professor Stephen Kogut, URI associate professor of research pharmacy Elaina Goldstein, and URI assistant professor of clinical pharmacy practice Anita Jackson.

“The pharmacist can add tremendous value and help avert problems,” said Kogut. “Too many patients end up back in hospitals, especially elderly patients.” With the ER-Card, he continued, “the patient's medical history can be accessed around-the-clock and it can be used to help the physician make treatment decisions, rule out problems, and perhaps to avoid repeating a test or prescribing a contraindicated medication.”