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. 2024 May 24:8971900241256776.
doi: 10.1177/08971900241256776. Online ahead of print.

Diabetes Care in A Safety Net Hospital: Impact of a Pharmacist Transitional Care Service

Shanelle M Murray  1 , Laura M Traynor  1 , Larissa R Gabler  1 , Heather Rhodes  1 , Ann M Brigino  1 , Rajani M Wikelius  1
Affiliations

Diabetes Care in A Safety Net Hospital: Impact of a Pharmacist Transitional Care Service

Shanelle M Murray et al. J Pharm Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is associated with increased risk of hospital readmission and imposes a significant economic burden on patients and healthcare systems. Literature suggests that pharmacist-led transitions-of-care (TOC) services reduce hospital readmissions and improve patient outcomes and data within safety-net hospitals is limited.

Methods: This was a single-center evaluation to assess the impact of pharmacist-led diabetes TOC services on hospital readmissions among diabetes patients vs standard care (SC). The evaluation included patients admitted from 11/1/2021-2/28/2022 and 10/19/2022-2/28/2023 who had a primary diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, were admitted for a diabetes-related reason, or were seen by the endocrine consult service during admission. The primary outcome was 30-day readmissions. Secondary outcomes included time to readmission, readmission diagnosis, changes in HbA1c, completion of follow-up visits, and number of pharmacist interventions at follow-up.

Results: There were 109 patients included (TOC n = 65; SC n = 44) and 13.8% (9/65) of TOC and 18.2% (8/44) of SC patients readmitted within 30 days (P = .235). Average time to readmission was 15.3 days in the TOC and 10.4 days in the SC cohorts. There were no diabetes-related readmissions in the TOC cohort. Over 60% (5/8) of readmissions in the SC cohort were diabetes-related. The average change in HbA1c was -2.5% in the TOC cohort and -1.2% in the SC cohort, P = .046. Approximately 51% of TOC patients completed an outpatient follow-up visit and nearly 70% of those patients had an intervention made at that time.

Conclusion: Pharmacist-led diabetes TOC services within a safety-net hospital may reduce hospital readmissions and improve clinical outcomes.

Keywords: diabetes; hospital readmissions; pharmacists; transitional care.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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