Pharmacist-led reviews to proactively manage patients with COPD and overcome the backlog of care (ID 464)
Interface Clinical Services
Funding: The project was directly commissioned and funded by the NHS
Abstract
Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland (LLR) integrated Care System (ICS) partnered with Interface Clinical Services, an IQVIA business to ease some of the pressure caused by the backlog of care.The seven-week support programme commissioned by LLR provided additional clinical resource to assess and proactively manage patients with COPD, this included:
- identifying gaps in care to recognise patients at risk of adverse events
-providing skilled capacity to deliver best care at scale and address healthcare inequalities
- providing mentorship opportunities to the multi-disciplinary team to sustain enhanced care.
The Interface pharmacist team delivered COPD clinic appointments across the ICS, working with 71 practices. Within these practices:
- 8,692 (77% of the COPD population) were identified as patients who may benefit from treatment optimisation with 7,420 (85%) of these patients invited to clinic
Of those patients seen in clinic:
- 635 patients received an escalation to their current level of management
- 100 patients received a de-escalation of their current level of management
- 2132 patients maintained their current level of management
- 1,199 non-pharmacological interventions were made, including referrals for smoking cessation or pulmonary rehabilitation.
Due to the pandemic and subsequent backlog in care, many of these patients had no recorded care process in the last 12 months. After the pharmacist clinics there were significant increases to these key markers, including:
- 96% increase in patients who had a COPD review
-171% increase in patients who had their inhaler technique checked
- 212% increase in patients with a CAT assessment
The increased capacity benefited the health and well-being of patients whilst the multi-disciplinary team were engaged with the review to provide ongoing, continued care. By working collaboratively LLR, were able to quickly implement a project at scale, utilising pharmacist skills to reach vulnerable patients, prevent exacerbations and optimise care.
Conflicts of interest: None
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