Impact of enhanced pharmacy services on adherence for patients with hypertension

To evaluate the impact of UI TEAM RX, a pharmacy-based enhanced services and care model, on adherence in patients with hypertension and prescribed a renin-angiotensin system antagonist (RASA).

A single-center, retrospective, observational cohort study was conducted in an academic health system, University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health). The cohort consisted of patients who utilized UI Health's outpatient pharmacies between May 2016 and December 2018 to fill RASA prescriptions. Patients who were not part of the UI TEAM RX care model served as the control group, while patients enrolled in UI TEAM RX formed the intervention group. The control and intervention groups were matched based on index date, age, gender, and race. The primary outcome was mean change in a rolling 6-month calculation of proportion of days covered (PDC). The secondary outcome was the percentage of patients who had reached their blood pressure goal at follow-up at 12 months.

Patients receiving UI TEAM RX intervention showed significant improvement in mean PDC at 6-month follow-up compared to control patients (P < 0.01). The proportion of patients with a PDC above 0.8 was higher in the intervention group, but this difference was not statistically significant. There was also a 16.4% increase in the proportion of patients who reached their blood pressure goal in the intervention group, although this increase was not statistically significant.

The UI TEAM RX program had a statistically significant impact on patients' mean PDCs. An increase in the number of patients reaching their blood pressure goal was also seen.