Our hospital pharmacists interact with every department and specialty in the hospital, providing them with a holistic patient care perspective. Combining their insights with BDO’s analysis and innovative thinking resulted in our new Pharmacist-led Total Cost of Care Reduction project, including an electronic medication management system that empowers our pharmacists to improve patient care while reducing costs. This project has received strong support from our C-suite and physicians, and our pharmacy team is excited about continuing to advance patient care and foster physician collaboration.
Sharp HealthCare and BDO’s Pharmacist-Led, AI-Enhanced Medication Management System Is Reducing Total Cost of Care
Top 3 Areas of Impact
Scaled up current systems to achieve repeatable process.
Achieved better clinical outcomes for complex patients.
Reduced total cost of care for the health system.
Summary
Discover how BDO harnessed advanced AI technologies with Sharp HealthCare’s (Sharp) high-performing Transition of Care model to help streamline its medication management process. The new system enhanced pharmacist-led reviews of patient medication data, resulting in considerable time savings, reduced total cost of care, and improved clinical outcomes for patients with complex needs. Based on the successful roll-out of its new Enhanced Medication Management (EMM) system, Sharp expects a three percent to six percent Total Cost of Care reduction on targeted patients across the system.
CLIENT
Sharp HealthCare
Sharp HealthCare
INDUSTRY
Healthcare
Healthcare
Challenge
Sharp HealthCare serves the San Diego County region through its four acute-care hospitals, four specialty hospitals, three affiliated medical groups, and health plan. Many of its patients require complex treatments involving multiple medications. Drug interactions or patient confusion can lead to repeat hospital and emergency room visits, increasing the total cost of care.
Reviewing a patient’s records for potential drug interactions demanded a significant amount of time from pharmacists and clinicians. This increased the total cost of care and potentially affected patient outcomes.
Sharp wanted to develop an improved Transition of Care process to balance patient medications with drug interaction monitoring, aiming to result in shorter hospital stays and fewer return visits to the emergency room.
Approach
BDO’s team first clarified the scope of the project with Sharp’s Governance Committee, comprising Sharp’s Chief Strategy Officer and Regional CEO, System Chief Pharmacy Officer, System Chief Transformation and Clinical Officer, and Regional Chief Medical Officer. The committee’s goals included reducing the total cost of care, as well as maintaining and/or improving clinical outcomes through scalable and repeatable pharmacist-led intervention processes.
We began assessing the existing pharmacy medication management and Transitions of Care platform, including Sharp’s newly launched Epic system and any existing automation. Our analysis of patient data identified targeted populations with high-cost conditions, such as heart failure, schizophrenia, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).
The clinical and financial data provided by Sharp detailed the cost implications of those patient populations. This initial focus group, consisting of approximately 3,500 patients and three DRGs, generated annual variable costs of more than $51 million.
BDO’s team collaborated with Sharp to augment its existing processes by integrating a third-party vendor’s tool. This tool is designed to manage drugs and clinical treatment with AI logic within Sharp’s current, high-performing Transitions of Care model. For example, pharmacists at Sharp could spend hours reviewing potential drug interactions for patients taking multiple drugs — a critical process that is often time consuming and inefficient. The new process allows for better medication management by highlighting complex medication interactions in real-time, regardless of the number of active medications a patient may be taking.
Throughout the project, BDO team members actively engaged with Sharp’s pharmacy and clinical teams to support the implementation of the Enhanced Medication Management initiative. They also regularly updated Sharp’s Governance Committee, maintaining accurate communication with leadership and helping ensure a smooth implementation by addressing any obstacles requiring executive intervention.
The Results
Sharp’s Transition of Care model now incorporates an Enhanced Medication Management system predicated on an AI-supported solution designed to improve clinical outcomes and reduce total cost of care for its patients. After implementing the system at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, the results are in.
Sharp has improved the efficiency and accuracy of pharmacy- and clinician-led medication reviews by enabling the identification of potentially dangerous drug interactions and obstacles to follow-up care. The end result is better clinical outcomes for some of its most complex patients. For example, pharmacists have used the new system to identify insurance issues that blocked follow-up care for heart failure patients. Prompt intervention restored full compliance with treatment plans that included follow-up visits and life-saving medications.
Sharp is beginning to experience a significant reduction in total cost of care for patients, insurers, and the healthcare system itself. Interim Q1 findings have shown a preliminary 8.4% reduction in hospital readmissions for the schizophrenia cohort alone.
The new system uses data and processes to drive outcomes in a way that can be replicated at other facilities, scaling the system to their particular needs. Based on current results, Sharp has the opportunity to extend its reach to improve the lives of even more patients, while cost reductions can be applied to other critical needs.
Twenty-three (23) schizophrenia patients captured within the EMM program were administered a Long Acting Injectable (LAI) in place of oral medications from January 2025-March 2025
- For 2024, the full schizophrenia population had a 21.4% readmission rate (499 total Schizophrenia patients in 460 bed acute-care hospital).
- 20 out of 23 patients have avoided a subsequent inpatient admission following their initial LAI (Jan 2025 – Mar 2025).
- Initial EMM Q1 2025 results identified a readmission rate of 13.0% (8.4% reduction compared to 2024) and avoided two readmissions for this cohort.
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