Assessed Value of Consultant Pharmacist Services in a Home Health Care Agency

To report results of a survey administered to clinicians in a home health care agency regarding reasons for them to initiate consultation with a pharmacist working onsite at the agency and the perceived value of the interaction.

The survey listed 16 reasons why an agency clinician commonly makes referrals and 9 questions assessing the perceived value of these services provided by the onsite consultant pharmacist. Responses were reported on a five-point Likert scale where 1 = Almost always/strongly agree and 5 = Almost never/strongly disagree.

Home health care agency in Spokane, Washington, with onsite and in-home consultant pharmacy services for 20 years via a partnership with Washington State University.

All clinicians employed by the home health care agency.

Twenty-eight of 101 part-time and full-time clinicians responded to the survey. Eighty-nine percent of respondents strongly agreed that it is valuable to have a consultant pharmacist onsite and pharmacy personnel serve as a helpful source of information. The most common reasons for referral were pain management, drug side effects, and drug interactions.

Clinicians indicated consultant pharmacist services are beneficial and they used the consultant pharmacist primarily for pain management, drug side effects, and drug interactions, but made referrals for a wide range of reasons. This indicates that an onsite consultant pharmacist is valuable to home care providers. Further research regarding the benefit of an onsite consultant pharmacist in the home care setting is warranted.