Pharmacist Impact on Physician Practices Related to Diabetes Management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.84.10081Abstract
To examine the impact of a pharmacist’s physical presence on (1) the achievement of individual and combined targets for hemoglobin A1c (A1C), blood pressure (BP), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (composite target), and (2) physician practices in relation to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) standards of medical care.
Methods
A retrospective, comparative study of randomly selected diabetic patients seen within an underserved primary care setting at least twice annually between June 1, 2018- December 31, 2019. Patients were allocated by whether they had received care in one of the physician-pharmacist clinics (Group A) or the physician-only clinic (Group B). Study outcomes included the proportion of patients achieving the composite and individual treatment targets for A1C, BP, and LDL-C.
Results
A total of 394 patients were included; Majority were underserved African Americans. The composite target was attained by 20% of participants in Group A and 13% in Group B (p=0.09). There were no statistically significant differences in achievement of individual targets between groups. A significantly higher proportion of participants in Group A achieved better control of diastolic blood pressure control (85% vs. 74%), had microalbuminuria tested (50% vs. 12%), were prescribed aspirin (43% vs. 32%), and had lower utilization of non-insulin glucose-lowering agents relative to those in Group B.
Conclusion
The impact of a pharmacist’s physical presence on physician practice demonstrated a general trend towards improvement in clinical outcomes related to diabetes management. Future studies are needed to further characterize the impact provided by the physician-pharmacist relationship.
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Copyright (c) 2021 Amina Ammar , Lindsay M. Darghali, Wassim Tarraf, Helen D. Berlie, Linda A. Jaber
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