Assessment of electronic pharmacist consults prior to the initiation of hepatitis c medication treatment in a federally qualified health center

Abstract

Objective: The objectives of this study are to: (1) determine the number and types of recommendations made by the pharmacist via electronic consults (econsult) prior to the initiation of hepatitis C treatment and (2) evaluate the acceptance rate of the pharmacist's recommendations. Methods: An interdisciplinary expert team, consisting of medical doctors, psychiatric nurse practitioner, pharmacist, HIV specialist nurse practitioner, medical assistant, and licensed practical nurse care coordinator, along with primary care providers at a 13-site federally qualified health center (FQHC) use video conference technology to meet every 2 weeks. Expert team members are based out of one site. The use of technology in the exchange of hepatitis C knowledge among team members and providers is essential to increase patient access to treatment in the primary care setting. During the meetings, primary care providers, located at any of the sites, present their patients diagnosed with hepatitis C and work with the team to develop comprehensive patient-specific care plans. As part of the care plan, the provider requests a complete drug therapy review, as an array of medications interact with hepatitis C treatment medications, by the only FQHC pharmacist via an e-consult prior to initiating treatment. This retrospective study includes a review of patients' charts in which the pharmacist provided an e-consult, as requested by the medical provider, between January 2012 and July 2013 and prior to the patient's initiation of hepatitis C medication treatment. Using the electronic medical record, baseline patient data, the number and types of pharmacist recommendations, and the number of provider accepted recommendations following the pharmacist's completion of the e-consult will be collected. Collected categorical data will be reported and analyzed accordingly. The findings can exemplify the pharmacist's role as an integral member of interdisciplinary treatment of primary care of patients with hepatitis C.