Evaluating a discharge medication delivery service: a return on investment study and a pilot trial

Abstract

Background: Many patients discharged from the hospital do not appropriately fill their discharge medications. At Boston Medical Center, an urban safety net facility, a bedside discharge medication delivery service was pilot tested in 2012 to ensure pediatric patients with asthma left in possession of their new medications. The service was expanded to all pediatric discharges in 2013. It is unknown whether beside delivery increases the proportion of written prescriptions captured by the hospital-owned pharmacy or if the service achieves a positive return on investment. Whether such a service improves patients’ satisfaction, medication adherence, or clinical outcomes is also unknown. Methods: Two primary methodologies were used to evaluate the impact of this novel service. The first evaluated the relative risk of filling a prescription in the hospital- owned pharmacy after the expansion of delivery eligibility criteria using two years of discharge prescription information, corresponding pharmacy fill data, and a hierarchical model with generalized estimating equations (GEE) to account for non-independent events. Initial patient-level impacts of the delivery service were evaluated through a pilot randomized controlled trial to test logistics and obtain empiric estimates of study parameters. Results: Patients were 1.44 times more likely to fill a medication at the hospital- owned pharmacy providing the delivery service after the intervention (95%CI 1.3-1.59). The increased profit generated by prescriptions captured as a result of offering the delivery service is estimated to be equivalent to 8-15% of a pharmacist full-time- equivalent (FTE), whereas only 3% of an FTE was required to provide the service, indicating a positive return on investment. Pilot study data suggest families did not differ significantly with regards to perceived satisfaction or reported outcomes whether randomized to usual care or delivery. Conclusion: A service to deliver discharge medications can yield a positive return on investment, allowing an institution to offset uncompensated care. To further study the intervention, a trial with randomization at the level of the ward or institution is needed.