There's no place like home-Integrating a pharmacist into the hospital-in-home model.

BACKGROUND: Hospital-in-home (HIH) is an innovative model that provides hospital-level care in a patient's home. Pharmacists can enhance the HIH model through medication reconciliation and medication optimization. OBJECTIVES: To integrate a clinical pharmacist into the HIH model and to conduct a formative evaluation of pharmacist contributions, including medication discrepancy resolution, cost savings, and cost avoidance. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: This is a prospective quality improvement study conducted at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System. PRACTICE INNOVATION: We integrated a pharmacist into the HIH model. The pharmacist conducted a medication reconciliation at hospital discharge and after discharge through home video telehealth and provided longitudinal medication management. EVALUATION METHODS: We adapted the PRECEDE-PROCEED model to guide program implementation. We conducted a formative evaluation using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework, evaluating the reach, efficacy, adoption, and implementation of the pharmacist in the HIH team. We calculated cost savings associated with pharmacist-managed home intravenous (IV) therapy, cost avoidance from deprescribing, and cost avoidance from earlier hospital discharge. RESULTS: The HIH program enrolled 102 patients from May 2019 to March 2020. The pharmacist completed 99 (97%) discharge and 95 (93%) postdischarge medication reconciliations, most of which 71 (75%) were conducted using home video telehealth. The pharmacist identified and resolved a total of 453 medication discrepancies: 181 (40%) at discharge and 272 (60%) during postdischarge medication reconciliation. A total of 84 (19%) discrepancies were considered high risk. The pharmacist managed 104 days of home IV therapy, resulting in a cost savings of approximately $17,000. The cost avoided by identifying and deprescribing 145 inappropriate medications was approximately $51,000. The cost avoided by earlier hospital discharge was $1.2 million. CONCLUSION: Integrating a pharmacist into the HIH model enables the detection and resolution of medication discrepancies. Cost savings from medication deprescribing, cost avoided from pharmacist-managed home IV therapy, and cost avoided from early hospital discharge totaled $1268 million.

Thiazide-Induced Hyponatremia Presenting as a Fall in an Older Adult.

Background: Regardless of age, first-line therapy for uncomplicated hypertension includes thiazide diuretics, long-acting calcium channel blockers, and renin-angiotensin system inhibitors. Even though older adults are often at increased risk of adverse drug events, specific guidelines for choosing between different classes of antihypertensives are lacking. Given the prevalence of hypertension in older adults, clinicians should be aware of the increased risk of electrolyte disorders after the initiation of thiazide diuretics in this population. Case Presentation: A patient aged > 90 years fell getting out of his bed 2 weeks following initiation of hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg daily medication therapy. Laboratory tests revealed a urine sodium of 35 mmol/L most consistent with hypovolemic hypoosmotic hyponatremia secondary to thiazide initiation. Hydrochlorothiazide was discontinued and sodium gradually normalized over the next 2 weeks without any other intervention. Conclusions: Despite being recommended as first-line therapy for uncomplicated hypertension, thiazide diuretics may cause more harm than good in older adults with risk factors for thiazide-induced hyponatremia, which should be considered before initiation.