Development of a Pharmacist-Led Opt-Out Cessation Treatment Protocol for Combustible Tobacco Smoking Within Inpatient Settings.

Background: Although people who smoke cigarettes are overrepresented among hospital inpatients, few are connected with smoking cessation treatment during their hospitalization. Training, accountability for medication use, and monitoring of all patients position pharmacists well to deliver cessation interventions to all hospitalized patients who smoke. Methods: A large Midwestern University hospital implemented a pharmacist-led smoking cessation intervention. A delegation protocol for hospital pharmacy inpatients who smoked cigarettes gave hospital pharmacists the authority to order nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) during hospitalization and upon discharge, and for referral to the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line (WTQL) at discharge. Eligible patients received the smoking cessation intervention unless they actively refused (ie, "opt-out"). The program was pilot tested in phases, with pharmacist feedback between phases, and then implemented hospital-wide. Interviews, surveys, and informal mechanisms identified ways to improve implementation and workflows. Results: Feedback from pharmacists led to changes that improved workflow, training and patient education materials, and enhanced adoption and reach. Refining implementation strategies across pilot phases increased the percentage of eligible smokers offered pharmacist-delivered cessation support from 37% to 76%, prescribed NRT from 2% to 44%, and referred to the WTQL from 3% to 32%. Conclusion: Hospitalizations provide an ideal opportunity for patients to make a tobacco quit attempt, and pharmacists can capitalize on this opportunity by integrating smoking cessation treatment into existing inpatient medication reconciliation workflows. Pharmacist-led implementation strategies developed in this study may be applicable in other inpatient settings.

Evaluation of anticoagulation and nonsurgical major bleeding in recipients of continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices.

Continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (LVAD) placement has become a standard of care in advanced heart failure treatment. Bleeding is the most frequently reported adverse event after LVAD implantation and may be increased by antithrombotic agents used for prevention of pump thrombosis. This retrospective cohort included 85 adult patients implanted with a Heartmate II LVAD. Major bleeding was defined as occurring >7 days after implant and included intracranial hemorrhage, events requiring 2 units of packed red blood cells within a 24-h period, and death from bleeding. Primary outcome was intensity of anticoagulation between patients with or without at least one incidence of nonsurgical major bleeding. Major bleeding occurred in 35 (41%) patients with 0.48 events per patient year and a median (IQR) time to first bleed of 134.5 (39.3, 368.5) days. The median (IQR) INR at time of bleed was 1.7 (1.4, 2.5). Median INR during follow-up did not differ between groups and patients with major bleeding were not more likely to have a supra-therapeutic INR. Patients who bled were more likely to have received LVAD for destination therapy, to have lower weight, worse renal function, and lower hemoglobin at baseline. Duration of LVAD support and survival were similar between groups with no difference in occurrence of thrombosis. Incidence of nonsurgical major bleeding was not significantly associated with degree of anticoagulation. Certain baseline characteristics may be more important than anticoagulation intensity to identify patients at risk for bleeding after LVAD implant. Modification of anticoagulation alone is not a sufficient management strategy and early intervention may be required to mitigate bleeding impact.

Reducing Discharge Delay Through Resident-Pharmacist Colocation: A Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Discharge delay of hospitalized patients is costly, inefficient, and can impede care of pending admissions. Through pharmacist colocation and daily discharge medication reconciliation meetings, we aimed to improve discharge efficiency and decrease the number of electronic pages. METHODS: We conducted a quality improvement initiative on the family medicine inpatient teaching service at a large academic medical center using two interventions: colocation and daily discharge medication reconciliation meetings of pharmacist and family medicine residents. We assessed: (1) discharge delay, defined as the time between discharge order and pharmacist's completion of discharge medication reconciliation and patient education; (2) the number of electronic messages between the pharmacist and family medicine team, assessed 1 month before and 1 month after implementation of the interventions. We also assessed team members' postinitiative views on collaboration, discharge safety, and timeliness, and knowledge acquisition using three 5-point Likert statements. RESULTS: Ninety-five preintervention and 54 postintervention patients met eligibility criteria. Discharge delay prior to intervention was 72.7±58.4 minutes and 47.6±37.4 minutes postintervention. The number of electronic messages between pharmacist and family medicine team pager decreased from 118 to 14 during the months studied. Team members felt collaboration, safe and timely discharges, and acquisition of new knowledge improved. CONCLUSIONS: Colocation of workspaces and daily medication reconciliation meetings were associated with decreased discharge delay and decreased pages between team members. Further study is needed to assess its reproducibility, impact on resident education and patient satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, and ability to scale to other services.