Review of the Role of the Pharmacist in Reducing Hospital Readmissions

Abstract

Hospital readmissions remain a public health concern despite progress in reducing and preventing its occurrence. Among strategies that have been implemented to reduce readmission most involves medication management. Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions involving pharmacists to reduce hospital readmissions. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for primary literature from January 1990 to July 2016 with search terms such as “hospital readmission,” and “Pharmacist,” or “Pharmacy,” or “medications.” Studies with an abstract in English which highlighted a pharmacist involvement based on the type of intervention, country of origin, type of study, and findings were summarized. The outcomes of these interventions to reduce hospital readmissions were mixed. Of the 29 studies, 16 (55%) showed a statistically significant reduction in readmissions ranging from 3.3% to 30%. Most of the interventions focused mainly on patient education postdischarge (8) or in addition to medication reconciliation predischarge (9). There were no studies from Africa or Asia but mainly from the United States (72%). Although multiple factors contribute to hospital readmission, this review highlights the important role pharmacists can play singularly and as part of interdisciplinary teams. Most effective interventions often involved medication review and patient education postdischarge.