Drug regimen review in skilled nursing facilities by consulting clinical pharmacists

The organization and operational methods of clinical pharmacists providing contractual pharmaceutical services in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are described, and the use of a model toidentify drug therapy problems is analysed. A group of clinical pharmacists incorporated as Clinical Pharmacy Consultants (CPC) provided consultative services through contractual agreements with pharmacy vendors or SNF administrators. Using a drug regimen review model designed by CPC, the consulting pharmacists reviewed 13,081 medical charts at 10 SNFs. Of the reviews, 928 (7.1%) indicated potential or real drug therapy problems; on an annual basis this corresponds to approximately eight drug therapy problems per 10 beds per year in an SNF. About 60% of the problems could be attributed either to prescribing of medication with no documented indication (23.9%) or to lack of objective data for monitoring drug therapy effectiveness (34.6%). Because these problems are related to disease state management, it was concluded that consulting clinical pharmacists could help to improve patient care in SNFs, primarily through drug therapy review and staff consultation.