Pharmacist Interventions Impact Bottom Line in a Neurology Clinic

A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University Health System examined pharmacist interventions, recommendations, and cost savings achieved by pharmacists in a non-multiple sclerosis (MS) neurology clinic. The American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy published the study results ahead of print, showing pharmacists in the non-MS clinic performed interventions that benefit patients, providers, the health-care system, and insurers.¹

Researchers studied patients from a single-specialty health-system pharmacy who received at least 1 pharmacist intervention from January to March 2023. They measured the number and types of pharmacist interventions, the time spent per pharmacist intervention, and the total cost avoidance resulting from the interventions.

Pharmacists performed 2244 interventions on 741 patients, including 392 recommendations. The interventions were categorized into the following categories: coordination of care (72%), general (16%), safety (10%), efficacy (5%), and adherence (2%). Pharmacists spent a median of 10 minutes per intervention.

The researchers found 386 accepted recommendations. They categorized these as specialty medication change, financial assistance referral, no medication change, provider referrals, patient counseling, specialty medication access, safety monitoring, and others. The researchers found that the most common recommendations from the pharmacists were medication changes (34%) and financial assistance referrals (17%). The pharmacists achieved $172, 757 in direct cost avoidance through 41 interventions for discontinuations and dose changes during the 3-month study period.

This study demonstrates that integrated outpatient specialty pharmacists in a non-MS clinic provide interventions that have positive clinical and financial outcomes. The researchers recommend comparing outcomes for patients using an integrated health systems specialty pharmacy and an external specialty pharmacy.

REFERENCE

Johnson K, Kaveh M, Livezey S, et al. Clinical and economic benefits of pharmacist interventions in a non-multiple sclerosis neurology clinic. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2026;00:1-8.