Incorporation and Impact of a Clinical Pharmacist in a Hospital-Based Neurology Clinic Treating Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Clinical pharmacists are uniquely positioned to assist with the complexities of medication management for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The objective was to describe clinical pharmacy services provided, as well as provider satisfaction with and perceived impact of incorporating a clinical pharmacist in MS patient care.
METHODS: The study consisted of a retrospective medical record review and a provider survey conducted in an outpatient neurology clinic at an academic medical center. Between April 2017 and June 2018, electronic medical records of patients with documented interventions by a pharmacist were reviewed to describe clinical pharmacy services provided to patients with MS. A voluntary, anonymous survey was distributed to neurology providers to evaluate provider satisfaction with and perceived impact of clinical pharmacist involvement in MS patient care.
RESULTS: There were 64 patients identified with 378 documented interventions made by clinical pharmacists. Pharmacist interventions were mostly related to facilitating medication access (n = 208), pretreatment screening (n = 57), patient counseling (n = 51), and providing drug information (n = 43). All nine providers surveyed indicated that facilitating medication access, counseling patients, and managing drug interactions were moderately or very important clinical pharmacy services. Furthermore, all providers surveyed strongly agreed that pharmacist involvement decreased time to therapy initiation and provider time spent on medication management.
CONCLUSIONS: Clinical pharmacists play an integral role in MS patient care, particularly with facilitating medication access. Prospective studies are needed to further evaluate the contribution of clinical pharmacists in MS patient care.