Implementation and results of a standardized process for identifying ambulatory pharmacy clinical outcome measures.

Purpose: Given the variation in clinical practice, a clinician-centric, standardized process to implement and validate clinical pharmacy outcome measures was developed.

Summary: Four specialty clinics with embedded clinic-based pharmacists underwent an iterative process to define, refine, and implement the build of electronic health record functionality for outcome measure data collection and reporting. Starting with a list of identified measures, clinic workgroups met to discuss each measure and identify gaps in measure implementation.

Review of Medication Error Sources Associated With Inpatient Subcutaneous Insulin: Recommendations for Safe and Cost-Effective Dispensing Practices.

The challenge of addressing variation in practice is underlined by variation in institutional operational and financial limitations, which ultimately directs institutional insulin dispensing strategy. Insulin therapy is multi-modal, and inpatient pharmacies may be responsible for simultaneously managing up to 8 formulations. While available as a tool for glycemic management in the inpatient setting, intravenous (IV) insulin and insulin pumps are out of scope for this review.

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Pharmacist-Led Transitions of Care Services on the 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Rate of Patients with Congestive Heart Failure.

Background And Objective: A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to determine the cumulative effect of pharmacist-led transitions of care on the 30-day all-cause readmission rates of patients with congestive heart failure with the objective to isolate and assess the effect of pharmacy intervention to a condition-specific service. Previous studies that review pharmacist-led transitional care services involve multiple condition-specific services or a pharmacy service integrated into the healthcare team that presents complications in interpreting the independent effectiveness of component services by pharmacy professionals.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted using articles identified from MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and clinicaltrials.