Correspondence: Katherine Kelly (katherine.kelly@va.gov)
aVeterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System, Dallas
Author disclosures
The authors report no actual or potential conflicts of interest or outside sources of funding with regard to this article.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Federal Practitioner, Frontline Medical Communications Inc., the US Government, or any of its agencies. This article may discuss unlabeled or investigational use of certain drugs. Please review the complete prescribing information for specific drugs or drug combinations—including indications, contraindications, warnings, and adverse effects—before administering pharmacologic therapy to patients.
Ethics and consent
This retrospective chart review study involving humanparticipants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System Institutional Review Boardapproved this study. Given retrospective nature of thisarticle, patient consent was not required.
This study's retrospective design is a limitation because practice patterns at the VANTHCS involving multiple hematology/oncology CPPs review of community care prescriptions might have evolved over time. The total financial implications of CPP interventions cannot fully be elucidated. The cost of alternative therapies used for patients who received a prescription denial is not factored into this review.
Conclusions
VANTHCS CPPs played an essential role in reviewing anticancer medication prescriptions from community care prescribers. In this study, CPP clinical interventions were completed for more than one-third of the prescriptions and the community-based HCP approved most of these interventions. These changes also resulted in financial benefits.
These findings add to the body of literature emphasizing the need for hematology/oncology-trained CPPs to review anticancer prescriptions and treatment plans. Our review could be used to justify CPP involvement in community care specialty medication review at VA facilities that do not currently have CPP involvement.
