Pharmacist-Led Follow-Up Program for Rural Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome: The PLURAL-ACS Pilot Program.

Background: Patients living in rural settings have poorer access to care and more frequent readmissions after treatment for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) than patients in urban settings. It is unclear what types of medication-related issues are encountered by this cohort and whether pharmacist-led care could resolve them.

Objectives: To describe the issues related to cardiac medications encountered by rural patients after treatment for ACS and the impact of a pharmacist-led virtual follow-up pilot program in this population.

Methods: A quality improvement initiative was developed whereby a cardiology pharmacist provided follow-up to post-ACS rural patients in Alberta, Canada, between March and May 2022. For each patient, the pharmacist identified and resolved cardiac medication-related issues through regular telephone visits over a 30-day period following hospital discharge. The primary outcome was the number of cardiac medication-related issues identified. Secondary outcomes included the types of medication-related issues identified and actions taken by the pharmacist to resolve them.

Results: During the 15-week program, 40 patients received care, and 139 virtual visits were completed. The median time spent per visit was 60 (interquartile range [IQR] 50-80) minutes. In total, 255 cardiac medication-related issues (6 per patient, IQR 3.75-8.25) were identified, of which 233 (91%) were resolved by the pharmacist. Prescription errors, adverse effects, and drug therapy optimization were the most common issues identified on days 1, 10, and 30, respectively. The pharmacist commonly undertook patient counselling (n = 126, 54%) and medication prescribing (n = 63, 27%) to address medication-related issues.

Conclusions: A substantial number of cardiac medication-related issues were identified and resolved through a pharmacist-led virtual follow-up program in rural post-ACS patients. These findings could assist in the development of future follow-up programs to improve care for this high-risk population.