Description and financial impact of ambulatory care pharmacy team interventions within an underserved patient population

Purpose The purpose of this study was to characterize and quantify the types of interventions made by an ambulatory care pharmacy team (ACPT), evaluate the financial impact of such interventions, and create a cost template for the interventions using the health system's intervention documentation system. We conducted a retrospective, single-center cohort study covering the period from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020. Eligible participants included patients aged 18 years or older who had an appointment at the ambulatory care clinic and received a pharmacy consult. Most patients were uninsured. Data collected included intervention types, specific interventions, the economic impact per intervention, the average cost avoidance per intervention, the total economic impact, and the total cost avoidance. The ACPT documented a total of 1,334 interventions during the 2-year study period. The 4 major categories of interventions included patient counseling, drug utilization review, medication therapy management, and drug information. Each category was further subdivided into subcategories, for a total of 18 distinct subcategories. The economic impact per intervention was approximately $30. The average cost avoidance was estimated to be $357.62 per intervention, with a total economic impact of $40,020 and cost avoidance of $477,065 for the study period. Conclusion Pharmacist interventions resulted in a significant amount of economic impact and cost avoidance for the health system. Using the data from the study, we created a cost estimate to indicate the value of each ambulatory care intervention by using the health system's intervention documentation system.