Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2015 - (Page 12)

WINTER/SPRING SA LU D FA M ILY H E A LT H CEN T ERS PHARMACY HOUSE CALLS MAKING THE DIFFERENCE IN HOSPITAL READMISSIONS Y Salud Family Health Centers' new Longmont location SALUD FAMILY HEALTH CENTERS IMPROVE CARE AND LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES F rom Brighton to Sterling, Salud's nine clinics serve communities in northeastern Colorado. The Center also operates a mobile unit designed to provide healthcare to migrant and refugee populations - taking healthcare to the community. Classified as a patientcentered medical home, Salud offers a variety of services and provides unique educational opportunities to our students. 12 CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences ears ago, the family physician would grab his medical bag, hop in his car or buggy and make house calls. It was more efficient to visit patients where they were. Then things changed, physicians stayed put and patients did the traveling. Today, house calls are making a comeback, but with a twist. Home visits as they are known at Salud Family Health Centers are helping patients transition from a hospital admission back into the primary care setting. Conducted by pharmacy students and volunteers (non-medical Community HealthCorps members), these home visits are part of a program titled Transitions of Care, and have proven to significantly impact hospital readmissions and successfully transition patients. "Medications errors or adverse events are one of the top reasons patients are readmitted to the hospital after discharge," says Tillman Farley, MD, executive VP of medical services for Salud. Farley continues, "This is a critical time for patients and having a medications expert on board to review and reconcile meds they are discharged with against what they have in their homes makes a big difference in readmission rates." The program relies heavily on pharmacy students who educate patients on their meds, teach them how to use them properly, explain why they are taking them and why they should cease or continue other medications. "Our students educate the patient on the reasons for the change. Quite often we see patients doubling up on their meds because they were given a medication in the hospital with a different name and they either were confused or didn't hear that they should stop taking the one at home," says Senior Clinical Instructor Jeff Freund, PharmD. Also, some instructions that accompany the meds can be confusing, and what we think is intuitive may not be clear to the patient. According to Dr. Freund, "In some cases we've seen

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Pharmacy Perspectives - Winter/Spring 2015