• Ann Emerg Med · Jun 2024

    A Dedicated Outpatient Pharmacy Improves Access to Discharge Medications in a Pediatric Emergency Department: A Quality Improvement Study.

    • Jason Hyunjoon Choi, Michelle Caruso Barrett, Nicholas Michel, Kamali Bouvay, Hamilton Schwartz, and Adam Alexander Vukovic.
    • Division of Emergency Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH; Section of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Electronic address: Jason.Choi@bcm.edu.
    • Ann Emerg Med. 2024 Jun 1; 83 (6): 552561552-561.

    Study ObjectiveFollowing discharge from a pediatric emergency department (ED) or urgent care, many families do not pick up their prescribed medications. The aim of this quality improvement study was to increase the percentage of patients discharged home with medications in-hand from 6% to 30% within 6 months.MethodsDue to the planned construction of a new ED, urgent care, and dedicated pharmacy, a multidisciplinary team was formed to increase access to discharge medications. We performed a pilot study in the urgent care to improve the discharge prescription process and expanded its scope to the ED. We evaluated the effect of our interventions on the percentage of patients discharged with medications in-hand through statistical process control charts. Process measures included the percentage of prescriptions electronically prescribed and directed to an on-site pharmacy.ResultsBetween June 21, 2021 and March 27, 2022, 7,678 patients were discharged with at least 1 medication in-hand. The percentage of patients discharged with medications in-hand increased from 6.2% to 60.6%. The percentage of prescriptions e-prescribed and directed to an on-site pharmacy increased to 94.6% and 65.6% respectively.ConclusionsIn this study, the availability of a 24-hour on-site pharmacy appears to be the most impactful intervention increasing access to discharge medications for families. Other interventions, such as a pilot study in the urgent care and implementing default electronic prescribing, may have potentiated the effect of the new pharmacy.Copyright © 2023 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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