Pharmacists in GP clinics drive down costs, hospital presentations: study
Medication review by pharmacists cuts risk of readmission and ED visits by one-third
Hospital readmissions, ED presentations and health costs drop when general practice-based pharmacists conduct medication reviews for patients newly discharged from hospital, a University of Queensland study suggests.
For the study, the research team compared readmission rates and ED presentations for 129 older patients (mean age 71) who had a medication review following hospital discharge versus 177 patients (mean age 69) who received usual care.
The patients, recruited from 14 general practices in southeast Queensland, were on five or more long-term