Home medication reviews by community pharmacists

Abstract

Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care identified the need for reform to adapt to an aging patient population and increased financial pressure on the health care system.1 The reform involves investing in evidence-based, cost-effective solutions provided through primary and home care channels, to minimize growing incidental costs from physicians and hospitalizations.2 Community pharmacists, as primary care health professionals, are ideally positioned to improve patient outcomes through home-based pharmacy programs. The MedsCheck at Home Program,3 introduced in Ontario in 2010, is an important initiative through which community pharmacists can improve the outcomes of the hardest-to-reach members of the community.