Strengthening the health home: HRSA's Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative

Background HRSA's Office of Pharmacy Affairs leads the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC), with the goal of integrating comprehensive medication management into primary care as a means to improve health outcomes and patient safety. PSPC is a quality improvement effort that helps reconcile a fragmented health care delivery system to address the growing demand to improve patient safety and health outcomes through medication management in a health home model.

Methods The PSPC model is designed to spread leading practices that are being demonstrated by community based teams so others can adapt these practices to strengthen their medical home. Interdisciplinary teams utilize the PSPC Change Package – a resource which contains a robust compilation of best practices that build upon five key principles; all of which help to improved outcomes and enhance the medical home.

Results Last year, PSPC enrolled 110 community-based. During this time, community based teams were able to generate a 60% reduction in near-miss medication errors and 50% reduction in harmful adverse events. Utilizing this model, teams were able to bring 54% of their most complex patients from “out of control” to “under control” across a range of chronic conditions.

Conclusion PSPC teams will demonstrate their capacity to make incremental changes that lead to system-wide improvements in patient safety and health outcomes through the integration of clinical pharmacy services into the primary healthcare delivery system. PSPC will also continue to spread leading practices with teams that are currently enrolled in this third year.