Impact of wellness coaching and monitoring services provided in a community pharmacy

Abstract

Objective: To assess the clinical and patient-centered outcomes of health coaching provided in the workplace by community pharmacists.

Design: Prospective interventional cohort study.

Setting: 11 independent community pharmacy chain locations in northwest and central Missouri, from January 2010 to January 2011.

Participants: 81 benefit-eligible patients and 23 community pharmacy coaches employed by the self-insured pharmacy chain.

Intervention: Patients were stratified into monitoring groups according to baseline screening values for cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose (FBG), body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference. Patients selected their pharmacist coach. Follow-up appointments occurred monthly to quarterly. Appointments consisted of education, goal setting, and monitoring through evaluation of treatment goals and physical assessment.

Main outcome measures: Change from baseline in mean total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), FBG, weight, BMI, waist circumference, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and patient satisfaction.

Results: Patients' total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, DBP, and FBG were reduced significantly. Mean changes in triglycerides, SBP, weight, BMI, and waist circumference were not statistically significant. The 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey version 2.0 showed improvements in both the Physical and Mental Component Summaries but did not reach statistical significance. More than 90% of patients were satisfied with the service and the care they received.

Conclusion: Wellness coaching by a pharmacist provided in a community pharmacy can result in significant improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, with a trend toward improved HRQoL. In addition, patients were satisfied with the wellness program from the start of the project.