Developing pharmacy services in a home hospital program: The Mayo Clinic experience

Purpose Home hospital programs are rapidly becoming a more common patient care model in the market. The impact on hospital pharmacy practices is not well defined. This article describes the development of pharmacy services in a home hospital program in an attempt to help other organizations create their own home hospital pharmacy programs. Caring for acutely ill patients in their home was a novel idea when Mayo Clinic began considering this in January 2020. Since then, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has rapidly escalated interest in and pursuit of these programs. One question we asked ourselves, and many colleagues are asking us today, is "How does pharmacy fit in?" Through 2 years of active engagement, innovation, and persistence, our team has developed a robust pharmacy presence in the home hospital care team and a well-articulated approach to medication management for our patients. We have tightly aligned and blended our clinical efforts to mirror our typical inpatient and ambulatory care clinical activities. We have also developed and modified our dispensing functions to serve the unique needs of the care model. Conclusion Home hospital medication management is both complex and ripe with opportunities for pharmacy engagement.