Effectiveness of pharmaceutical support by pharmacists in urinary care teams

Takumi Umemura,Hirokazu Takeda,Eri Wakita,Yoshiaki Ikeda,Koji Kozaki,Takahito Mizuno,Masami Asano

doi:10.1186/s40780-019-0141-7

Abstract

To facilitate timely removal of urinary catheters and promote self-voiding among inpatients, urinary care teams have been established in some Japanese medical institutions. However, direct evidence of the effectiveness of pharmacist intervention in urinary care teams is limited. We evaluated the efficacy of pharmaceutical support by a pharmacist in a urinary care team. Between September 2017 and August 2018, 84 patients met the criteria for initiating continuous intervention. Patients with (20 cases) and without (8 cases) adoption of pharmaceutical support (initiation or discontinuation of treatment for dysuria) were scored for urinary function (including degree of independence of urination and score of lower urinary tract disorder) and for urinary situation. Comparative analysis results showed that pharmacist intervention in the adoption cases resulted in significantly improved scores for urinary function than in non-adoption cases. Similarly, pharmaceutical support resulted in improved overall urinary situation in the patients (85.0% of adoption cases compared to 37.5% of the non-adoption cases). The most common pharmaceutical support was a recommendation to discontinue drugs that induce dysuria (65.0% of the cases). Taken together, our findings suggested that pharmacists are important members of urinary care teams.

Highlights

Inappropriate long-term indwelling catheterization is common among patients in acute hospital settings
We evaluated the efficacy of pharmaceutical support by a pharmacist in a urinary care team
These results indicated that pharmaceutical support by a pharmacist was an important addition to the urinary care team

Summary

Introduction

Inappropriate long-term indwelling catheterization is common among patients in acute hospital settings. It is a known leading cause of urinary tract infection, cystolithiasis, urethral injury, fistula formation, and erosion of the bladder neck and urinary sphincter [1, 2]. Timely removal of urinary catheter and promotion of self-voiding are beneficial for inpatients. The World Health Organization recommends that prompted voiding be offered for older people as a part of urinary incontinence management [5]. To address these issues, urinary care teams have been established in some Japanese medical

Methods

Results

Conclusion