Pharmacists in Care Teams Improve Care for Patients with Dementia

Problems related to elderly patients’ medical drug treatments are widespread and commonly result in hospital admissions for people with dementia. New research shows that including clinical pharmacists in healthcare teams might improve the quality and safety of patient care and halve the risk of drug-related hospital readmissions. This according to a dissertation at Umeå University in Sweden.

The study was based on an intervention, where clinical pharmacists participated in healthcare teams and controlled if individual patients’ drug lists were correct and complete. They also performed comprehensive analyses of all the drugs a patient was taking and suggested potential improvements to the physician in charge as well as initiated discussions in the healthcare team.

“The results after the intervention showed that clinical pharmacists’ participation in healthcare teams reduced the risk of drug-related hospital readmissions by half during the follow-up time of 180 days,” says Maria Gustafsson, doctoral student and clinical pharmacist  at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation at Umeå University.