Linked pharmacist-provider new patient visits in primary care

Abstract

Objectives: To implement a project of linked pharmacist-provider new patient visits and then evaluate the impact on the productivity of the provider and pharmacist.

Study design: A clinical pharmacist was integrated into the workflow at 2 sites (sites A and B) of Henry J. Austin Health Center, a federally qualified health center, so that new patients were scheduled to see the pharmacist in a 15-minute encounter immediately before a 15-minute encounter with the primary care provider.

Methods: Reports generated in the electronic health record were downloaded into Microsoft Excel for statistical analysis. Two-sample 2-tailed t tests assuming unequal variances were used to evaluate changes in the mean number of appointments checked in and canceled before and after the project's implementation to study provider productivity, the primary study outcome. Descriptive statistics were used to report the pharmacist's productivity.

Results: Statistically significant increases in the number of checked-in new patient visits and in all visits of any type were observed at site A; however, these changes were not observed at site B.

Conclusions: The linked visits between the pharmacist and provider allowed for increased provider productivity at 1 of the sites. Based on these results and provider feedback from both sites, this project was viewed as a positive initiative. Scheduling challenges were a barrier to project success at site B.