Vanderbilt Clinical Trials

A Pharmacist-Led Intervention to Increase Inhaler Access and Reduce Hospital Readmissions (PILLAR)

Purpose

The goal of this study is to assess the impact of pharmacist-led benefits investigations and application of clinical practice guidelines on patient access to inhalers and time to hospital readmission or Emergency Department (ED) visit.

Conditions

COPD
Asthma

Eligibility

Eligible Ages: Over 18 Years
Eligible Genders: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Inclusion Criteria

Adult patient admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) (excluding surgery services) - on a long acting inhaler or prescribed a long acting inhaler during admission.

Exclusion Criteria

Diagnosis of cystic fibrosis - Diagnosis of graft versus host disease (GVHD) - no medication insurance - discharge to any post-acute care facility or inpatient hospice - death during hospitalization

Study Design

Phase
Study Type: Observational
Observational Model: Cohort
Time Perspective: Prospective

Arm Groups

Arm	Description	Assigned Intervention
Patients Using Inhalers	Adult patient admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (excluding surgery services) on a long acting inhaler or prescribed a long acting inhaler during admission.	Other: Benefits investigation The study pharmacist will review the prescribed inhaler for 1) insurance coverage and 2) clinical appropriateness. The pharmacist will conduct a benefits investigation at time of hospital admission. The benefits investigation involves running test claims for inhalers to determine the most cost-effective inhaler for the patient's insurance plan. The study pharmacist will utilize clinical practice guidelines to assess appropriateness of the prescribed inhaler. Based on this review, the study pharmacist will submit a pharmacy consult to the inpatient pharmacist on the patient's healthcare team who will pend the inhaler orders (changing the patient's prescribed inhaler, if necessary) for the prescriber to send to the Meds to Beds discharge pharmacy. The Meds to Beds pharmacist will counsel the patient on inhaler use techniques prior to discharge.

More Details

Status: Active, not recruiting
Sponsor: Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Study Contact

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.