Evaluation of the impact of a clinic infusion pharmacist on the retention of infusion therapy

Abstract

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the impact of an embedded clinic infusion pharmacist on the retention of outpatient infusion therapy. Methods This was a single-center, pre-post, retrospective and prospective cohort study at a large quaternary care academic medical center. Outpatient infusion administrations were included in this study if they originated from a clinic with an embedded clinic infusion pharmacist and were targeted high-impact medications. The primary outcome was the impact of embedded clinic infusion pharmacists on the number of infusion administrations from before to after implementation. Secondary outcomes included the time from order entry to first infusion, return on investment (ROI), and level of utilization of various infusion centers. Outpatient infusion and injection administrations were divided into 2 cohorts: a preimplementation cohort administered from April 2021 to March 2022 and a postimplementation cohort administered from April 2022 to March 2023. Results A total of 12,257 outpatient infusion administrations were included in the study from the inflammatory bowel disease, Vanderbilt Eye Institute, and neurology clinics. As the embedded infusion pharmacists began working within the respective clinics, a statistically significant increase could be seen in the overall administration of high-impact medications (from 5,683 infusions before implementation to 6,574 infusions after implementation; P < 0.001). The ROI for an embedded clinic infusion pharmacist’s services was greater than 2,500%. Conclusion Retention of outpatient infusion therapy can be significantly increased with a positive ROI through allocation of pharmacist resources to areas initiating infusions. Health systems can utilize this model to improve patient access to infusion and injection therapies at entity-owned clinics.