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QUERI-VISN 21 Heart PharmD Project: Transforming Heart Care

“Heart PharmD: Implementation Evaluation of PACT Pharmacy Management of Heart Failure in VISN 21” is a three-year QUERI Partnered Evaluation Initiative (PEI) led by Paul Heidenreich, MD, Chief of Medicine at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and co-led by Regina Godbout, MD, VISN 21 Chief Medical Officer.

Conducted in partnership with Scott Mambourg, PharmD, VISN 21 Pharmacist Executive, as well as the VISN 21 Chiefs of Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacy Supervisors, this quality improvement initiative will help achieve the national VA and VISN goal of transforming heart failure care at the Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) level. This PEI is evaluating an intervention (audit and feedback) to improve heart failure management by PACT pharmacists. The project could lead to improved quality of heart failure care and access to primary and specialty care.

PACT pharmacists are receiving monthly email messages that describe their heart failure care, with comparisons to their facility and VISN 21. Some pharmacists will also receive encrypted details of heart failure patients in their PACT who are not on optimal treatment and may benefit from pharmacist management.

For support, PACT pharmacists have access to a library of varied resources, including heart failure protocols and monthly recorded Microsoft Teams meetings in which they can present cases and ask questions of VISN cardiologists.