Combining pharmacy expertise with asthma educator certification: assessing the impact on inner-city asthma patients

AbstractObjective: Asthma is one of the major causes of hospital readmissions in the South Bronx. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of asthma education provided by registered pharmacists with asthma educator certification (AE-C), on medication adherence and hospitalizations/Emergency Department (ED) visits. Methods: This was a retrospective chart review of patients seen in the pulmonary clinic from October 2014 to August 2015 for asthma education by AE-C pharmacists. Medical records were reviewed over an 18-month period – 9 months before and after the initial asthma education session. Data obtained included adherence to asthma controller inhalers based on pharmacy refill claims, asthma control using asthma control test (ACT) scores and asthma-related hospitalizations or ED visits within 30 days of asthma education. Pre-education data served as the pre-intervention group data and post-education data served as the post-intervention group data, allowing each patient to serve as their own contro...