Effect of Clinical Pharmacy Services on the Quality of Family Practice Physician Prescribing and Medication Costs

This study assessed the impact of physician exposure to clinical pharmacy services on the appropriateness of physician prescribing and on medication costs. Two study sites were used: FPC (primary resident training office without clinical pharmacist) and PMC (satellite office with clinical pharmacist). The same physicians provided care at both study sites. Exposed patient encounters were selected from encounters during each resident's rotation at the PMC satellite. Unexposed patient encounters were selected from encounters at the FPC immediately prior to each resident's exposure to clinical pharmacy services. A blind review panel evaluated case abstracts of the patient encounters for appropriateness of drug choice, daily dosage, dosing interval, duration of treatment, clarity of instructions, and monitoring data; potential severity of the patient problem; and difficulty of the clinical decision. After adjusting for covariables (potential severity, difficulty, patient age, sex, Medicaid status, therapeutic category, and type of medical problem), physician-patient encounters in which family practice residents were exposed to clinical pharmacy services were rated significantly more appropriate for choice of drug prescribed, daily dosage chosen, dosing interval selected, clarity of prescription instructions, and monitoring data. Costs of acute medications, as measured by average wholesale price per day, per dose, and per treatment course, were also significantly lower for clinical pharmacy-exposed physician-patient encounters.