Collaborative Care Between Clinical Pharmacists and General Practitioners in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease in Slovenia

Abstract

Background

Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients are often treated with inadequate doses of AD's medications, which can lead to harms and additional costs.

Objective

In most European countries, there is no data on inappropriate prescribing (IP) in patients with AD in terms of inadequate doses. In Slovenia, the interest for a collaborative care between clinical pharmacists and physicians is increasing, mainly because of payer's interest to reduce several additional costs.

Aim

The main aim of this paper was to present the benefits of clinical pharmacist interventions in AD patients in community health centres in Eastern Slovenia.

Methods

All included outpatients with AD in 2013 were included, where clinical pharmacists’ interventions were ordered by the general practitioners (GPs). All study data from the patients’ records were obtained from the clinical pharmacists’ reports and patients’ charts. Main outcome measures were obtained from the summary of the patients’ treatments and the questionnaires.

Results

Six hundred and twenty-nine patients were included. Before the clinical pharmacist medications review, 39 patients were treated with AD medications (10 without established AD). In 51.0% of these cases, the suggestions to GPs were provided (mainly dose adjustment). In 70.0% of all cases, the recommendations were accepted by GPs, which led to a total reduction in the number of patients with IP (before 20 and after 6).

Conclusions

A clinical pharmacist could help GPs in recognizing IP in patients with AD. These data will guide health system directors and clinical coordinators in allocating resources to establish this cooperation in more European countries.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.