Cutting-edge practice model: Experience in a community hospital system.

Patient outcomes at five facilities with clinical pharmacy services (compared with outcomes at five similar facilities without those services) included lower readmission rates, shorter lengths of stay, greater cost avoidance (including lower medication-related malpractice claims paid), and reduced pharmaceutical supply expenses. The model has been fully implemented at eight hospitals and partially at six. Based on our experience, administrators can be influenced to allocate resources to a clinical pharmacy practice model based on favorable return-on-investment evidence.