Objectives:

To describe a collaborative program between pharmacists from an Emergency Department and a long-term Health Care Center, and to evaluate its impact on the frequency of visits to the emergency department.

Material and methods:

Retrospective observational study in which the interventions performed by a multidisciplinary collaboration team in patients discharged from an Emergency Service to a long-term Health Care Center for 9 months were described. To evaluate the health-care impact of this intervention, the number of re-visits to the emergency department at 30 days of patient's dischrge to long-term Health Care Center was compared with the same period of the previous year.

Results:

627 patients discharged from the Emergency Department to the long-term Health Care Center, being treatment modifications reported in 233 patients (mean age: 87.1 (SD: 7.7) years). The main reason for attending the emergency room was respiratory infection (74; 31.8%), followed by urinary infection (33; 14.2%). Interventions were performed in 48 (20.6%) of the patients upon admission by pharmacists of the the long-term Health Care Center, being the adjustment of antibiotic therapy the most frequent intervention (13; 27.1%). There was a non-significant trend towards a reduction in the number of re-visits to the Emergency Department during the intervention period (6.6% vs. 4.9%; p=0.258).

Conclusions:

Communication between the pharmacists responsible for the Emergency Service and long-term Health Care Centers allows a comprehensive action on the patient's pharmacotherapy, with a potential impact on the healthcare system.

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