Abstract
Background The prevalence of drug-related problems in patients hospitalized at respiratory care units is unknown in mainland China. Objective To identify and categorize drug-related problems in a respiratory care unit in China. Setting Respiratory care unit in a tertiary university hospital in China. Methods Clinical pharmacy services were introduced and documented during an 18-months study period. The problems were categorized using the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe DRP classification tool V8.02. Main outcome measures Problems and causes of drug-related problems, interventions proposed, and outcome of pharmacy recommendations. Results A total of 474 patients were reviewed, 164 patients had DRPs (34.6%). Total 410 problems were identified, an average of 2.5 per patient. Treatment effectiveness was the major type of problem detected (219; 53.4%) followed by treatment safety (140; 34.1%). The most common causes of the problems were patient-related (25.8%), drug selection (24.0%), and drug use process (23.4%). Pharmacist made 773 interventions; average 1.9 per drug-related problem. A total of 96.2% of these interventions were accepted leading to solving 81.9% of the identified problems. Conclusion There is a high prevalence of drug-related problems in patients hospitalized at the respiratory unit of this clinic. Clinical pharmacists should focus on improving prescribing practice and patient counseling.
Highlights
The prevalence of drug-related problems in patients hospitalized at respiratory care units is unknown in mainland China
Clinical pharmacists should focus on improving prescribing practice and patient counseling
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective study describing the prevalence of drug-related problems in patients admitted to a respiratory care unit in mainland China
Summary
Clinical pharmacy services were introduced and documented during an 18-months study period. Main outcome measures Problems and causes of drug-related problems, interventions proposed, and outcome of pharmacy recommendations. Total 410 problems were identified, an average of 2.5 per patient. Pharmacist made 773 interventions; average 1.9 per drug-related problem. A total of 96.2% of these interventions were accepted leading to solving 81.9% of the identified problems. Patients were cared for by a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) consisted of physicians, nurses, and one clinical pharmacist. The responsibilities of the clinical pharmacist were: (1) participating in daily MDT round and case discussions, (2) providing drug information and therapy consultations to the MDT, (3) reviewing medication orders to identify DRPs and proposing clinical interventions to resolve the DRPs identified. The hospital has computerized physician order entry (CPOE) with clinical decision support for physician prescribing and pharmacist order verification
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