Key result
Heart failure community pharmacy certificate program yields ~38% clinician acceptance of pharmacist interventions.
Why the study?
Limited evidence exists regarding the implementation of community-based heart failure care involving community pharmacists.
Does collaborative care involving certified community pharmacists improve heart failure management and patient education in adult patients with HF?
Cohort (n=34)
Yes
Does collaborative care involving certified community pharmacists improve heart failure management and patient education in adult patients with HF?
A community pharmacy certificate program and pharmacist-physician network successfully enabled community pharmacists to deliver comprehensive HF education and clinical interventions, demonstrating feasibility for collaborative HF care.
Captured external expert commentary on this paper, strongest first. Original sources are linked where available.
“Recent statewide data show underutilization of life-saving heart failure medications in West Virginia. To address this, we are developing a Community Pharmacy Heart Failure Certificate Program and Statewide Collaborative Network to improve health disparities in local heart failure care. This Program will help pharmacies work closely with local doctors to ensure patients get the best treatment, stay on their medications, and reduce hospital visits.”
Pilot program demonstrated feasible pharmacist interventions in heart failure; hypothesis-generating and requires randomized outcome trials before practice consideration.
BACKGROUND: Limited evidence exists on the implementation of community-based heart failure (HF) care with community pharmacists. OBJECTIVES: The goal of the pilot study was to evaluate the impact of collaborative HF care through the development of a community pharmacy certificate program and new partnerships between community pharmacists and providers. METHODS: The pilot project was a 1-year prospective cohort study. Community pharmacists were educated through the certificate program. The patient inclusion criteria were adult patients with HF. Community pharmacists provided patients with comprehensive education about HF medication, HF self-care, diet, and vaccine at enrollment. Pharmacist interventions included: 1) guideline-directed medical therapy optimization; 2) medication education; 3) HF self-care education; 4) adherence optimization; 5) cost mitigation strategies; 6) managing medications worsening HF; 7) immunizations; and 8) dietary education. Each patient was prospectively followed for 6 months. RESULTS: Three pharmacies were selected as pilot sites. Following completion of the certificate course, all 3 pharmacists passed the exam achieving above 80% on their first attempt. A total of 34 patients were enrolled in the study. All patients received comprehensive education at the initial follow-up encounter with community pharmacists. A total of 80 interventions were performed, of which 30 (37.5%) were accepted. The most accepted intervention was a vaccine (13 patient-accepted interventions), followed by seven accepted adherence-related interventions, five HF guideline-directed medical therapy interventions, 3 nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug discontinuation interventions, and two cost-mitigation strategy interventions. CONCLUSIONS: The development and implementation of a HF community pharmacy certificate program prepared 3 community pharmacists to participate in collaborative HF care with cardiology providers. Certified pharmacists delivered comprehensive education to patients with HF and provided a wide range of clinical interventions supporting the potential role of community pharmacists in HF management.
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Kido et al. (2026) conducted a cohort in Heart failure (n=34). Collaborative heart failure care via community pharmacy certificate program was evaluated on Number and acceptance rate of pharmacist interventions. Implementation of a heart failure community pharmacy certificate program enabled pharmacists to perform 80 clinical interventions for 34 patients, of which 37.5% were accepted.