Assessing the impact of a payor-funded embedded clinical pharmacist on patient and provider satisfaction in a private primary care practice

Purpose: With expanding roles of clinic-embedded pharmacists comes the need to identify routes for optimization, soliciting and addressing feedback, and justifying the position(s) to the employing institution. Studies have demonstrated the benefit of integrating pharmacists into healthcare teams, but these opportunities remain largely limited to major health systems due to a lack of billing avenues for and familiarity with the services pharmacists can provide.

Methods: With funding from and partnership with a third-party payor, a pharmacist was incorporated into a private physician-owned clinic to be a resource to the providers and provide comprehensive medication management to patients. Patient and provider experiences were assessed by survey and interview, respectively, utilizing both Likert-scale and free-response questions. The responses were coded, analyzed, and aggregated into themes. The demographic and Likert-scale responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Patients reported a high level of satisfaction with the pharmacist's service, indicating that they felt more comfortable managing their medications and that they would recommend the pharmacist to a family member or friend. Provider satisfaction was also high, with providers stating that they found the recommendations by the pharmacist helpful, that the recommendations improved cardiovascular risk factors in their patients with diabetes, and that, overall, they were satisfied with the care provided by the pharmacist. The primary concern from the providers was a lack of understanding regarding how best to reach and utilize the service.

Conclusion: Overall, an embedded clinical pharmacist providing comprehensive medication management at a private primary care clinic had a positive impact on both provider and patient satisfaction.