Do pharmacist-led medication reviews in hospitals help reduce hospital readmissions? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this meta-analysis is to examine the impact of in-hospital pharmacist-led medication reviews in paediatric and adult patients. Methods: Relevant studies were identified from the Medline and Cochrane Library databases. Studies were included if they met the following criteria (without any language or date restrictions): design: randomized controlled trial; intervention: in-hospital pharmacist-led medication review (experimental group) vs. usual care (control group); participants: paediatric or adult population. The primary outcome was all-cause readmissions and/or emergency department (ED) visits at different time points. The secondary outcomes were all-cause readmissions, all-cause ED visits, drug-related readmissions, mortality, length of hospital stay, adherence and quality of life. We calculated the relative risk (RR) or mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each study. We used fixed and/or random effects models. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2statistic. Results: We systematically reviewed 19 randomized controlled trials (4805 participants). The readmission rates did not differ between the experimental group and the control group (RR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.89; 1.05, p = 0.470). The secondary outcomes did not differ between the two groups, except for in drug-related readmissions, which were lower in the experimental group (RR = 0.25, 95% CI 0.14; 0.45, p < 0.001), and all-cause ED visits (RR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.59; 0.85 p = 0.001). Conclusion: The low-quality evidence in this analysis suggests an impact of pharmacist-led medication reviews on drug-related readmissions and all-cause ED visits. Few studies reported on adherence and quality of life. More high-quality randomized clinical trials are needed to assess the impact of pharmacist-led medication reviews on patient-relevant outcomes, including adherence and quality of life.