The impact of clinical pharmacist integration in a community rheumatology clinic.

Purpose: To describe the benefits of pharmacist integration into a community rheumatology clinic in terms of clinical outcomes, patient and provider satisfaction, and clinic time efficiency.

Methods: A 6-month study was conducted at a community rheumatology clinic to compare clinical and patient and provider satisfaction outcomes before and after a clinical pharmacist (CP) was integrated into the clinic staff to assist with providing medication counseling, ordering and monitoring laboratory tests, monitoring adverse effects and medication adherence, and titrating medication doses. The primary outcome was the change in Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID-3) scores from baseline to 3 and 6 months after CP integration.