Evaluation of pharmacy resident and student recommendations made before and after home-based primary care patient visits.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the types of recommendations documented in pharmacy resident and student home-visit notes with those made in the electronic medical record-based drug regimen review (DRR) notes. SETTING: San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC), San Francisco, California. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: The SFVAMC Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) program provides primary care services through an interdisciplinary team. The pharmacist performs a DRR-a federally required, quarterly retrospective review of the medications for each patient enrolled in the HBPC program and acts as a preceptor for pharmacy residents and students helping to provide patient care. PRACTICE INNOVATION: Starting in 2008, residents and students began making home visits with the HBPC primary care providers. Activities and recommendations were documented in a home visit clinical note. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number and types of recommendations documented during the DRR and in the home visit notes as well as the clinical change in disease states based on the accepted recommendations. RESULTS: Ninety-three recommendations were accepted: 27 DRR recommendations and 66 home visit recommendations from August 1, 2008, to July 31, 2009. The most commonly accepted DRR recommendations were to evaluate response to therapy (29%) and home visit recommendations to document medications not listed in the medication profile (26%). Clinical change in disease state based on the majority of the accepted recommendations remained unchanged for both DRR and home visit recommendations. CONCLUSION: Home visits by pharmacy residents and students resulted in a greater number and different type of recommendations documented in their home visit notes compared with those in the DRR notes.