Discharge Counseling and Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Services After Discharge for Heart Failure Patients

Readmission to a hospital shortly after discharge is a common and costly problem. In the United States patients with a diagnosis of heart failure currently experience an elevated 30 day readmission rate of approximately 20%. By providing patients with medication related counseling at discharge by a pharmacist, home medications at discharge, and seeing the patient again in a pharmacist-run Medication Therapy Management (MTM) clinic 7 days after discharge, the study anticipates achieving its primary goal of showing a reduction in the readmission rate. Secondary goals are: 1) to determine patients understanding of the medication they are taking, 2) to evaluate satisfaction with the comprehensive discharge counseling service, and 3) determine the number of interventions made and benefit of the MTM clinic.

The active arm of this study (medication related hospital discharge counseling by a pharmacist, home medications, and 7 day follow-up visit at a pharmacist run MTM clinic) is available to all subjects. To study the primary goal of reducing the 30 day readmission rate the data obtained from the active arm subjects will be compared to a match group of hospitalized patients that were previously discharged with a diagnosis of heart failure. The data for all secondary study goals will be obtained directly from the active arm subjects.