Switching Statin Therapy Using a Pharmacist-Managed Therapeutic Conversion Program versus Usual Care Conversion Among Indigent Patients

Study Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of switching statin therapy using a therapeutic conversion program versus usual care conversion among patients enrolled in the Colorado Indigent Care Program when atorvastatin was removed from the formulary.

Design. Prospective cohort study.

Setting. Family medicine center and other ambulatory care clinics of a university-based health care system.

Patients. One hundred seventeen ambulatory care patients with dyslipidemia who were treated with atorvastatin.

Intervention. Clinical pharmacists in the family medicine center implemented a therapeutic conversion program (30 patients), switching atorvastatin to a new formulary regimen of simvastatin, rosuvastatin, or ezetimibe-simvastatin, using an algorithm designed to achieve patient-specific goals for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL). Usual care occurred in the other ambulatory care clinics without clinical pharmacists (87 patients), where medical providers switched atorvastatin to a formulary regimen based on a suggested (but optional) equipotency conversion algorithm.

Measurements and Main Results. Primary end points were LDL concentration and LDL goal attainment before and after conversion. Before and after conversion, respectively, mean LDL concentrations were 86.7 and 82.3 mg/dl in the therapeutic conversion group (p=0.44) versus 78.3 and 85.2 mg/dl in the usual care group (p=0.01). Percentages of patients attaining LDL goal were 80% before and 97% after conversion in the therapeutic conversion group (p=0.04) compared with 90% before and 75% after conversion in the usual care group (p=0.01).

Conclusion. Use of a prospective, therapeutic statin conversion program was associated with increased control of dyslipidemia, whereas usual care statin conversion was associated with decreased control. These data suggest that proactive involvement of clinical pharmacists in converting lipid-lowering drugs results in superior patient care outcomes compared with a less aggressive approach.