Abstract
Medication review aims at optimizing the impact of medications while minimizing their related problems. Drug-related problems have never been properly addressed in Egyptian hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to record and compare the prevalence and types of medication related problems, the interventions provided by the clinical pharmacists and how physicians responded along with making recommendations for error prevention. This prospective study was conducted between June 2012 and December 2012, at an Egyptian general hospital. Five trained pharmacists recorded patient-specific medication related recommendations and completed quality-of-care interventions. The average number of audited doses was 81% of those prescribed. The most prevalent medication problem was prescribing errors followed by administration errors. A total of 20 patients experienced adverse drug events. The greatest error rates across the seven months were observed in the ICU and cardiology units. Numbers of interventions offered by the pharmacists ranged from 241, to 519 per month. Nurses accepted all the interventions introduced by the pharmacists aimed at reducing administration errors while physicians’ resistance rates had an average of 21%. This study showed a positive influence of the pharmacist-led medication review in reducing potential drug-related problems in an Egyptian secondary care where the hospital under study implemented new measures to minimize drug related problems according to the findings of the trained pharmacists.
Highlights
Patient safety is a main goal in any treatment protocol
With the implementation of this practice in several hospitals in Egypt, the aim of this study arouse, which was recording, and comparing the prevalence, and types of medication related problems, the interventions provided by the clinical pharmacists and how physicians responded in one of the trial Egyptian hospitals along with making recommendations for error prevention, emphasizing the role of clinical pharmacists in an Egyptian setting
The total numbers of prescribed doses in the hospital were 52887, 48412, 48317, 52359, 44896, 44541 and 49622 for the seven months period starting in June, respectively, in 11 wards including surgical and intensive care units (ICUs)
Summary
Patient safety is a main goal in any treatment protocol. Drugs are not licensed worldwide until they are proven toHow to cite this paper: Sabry, N.A. and Abbassi, M.M. (2014) Impact of a Clinical Pharmacist in the General Hospital: An Egyptian Trial. How to cite this paper: Sabry, N.A. and Abbassi, M.M. Drug related problems (DRPs) represent a worldwide concern. A DRP can be defined as “A circumstance that involves a patient’s drug treatment that or potentially, interferes with the achievement of an optimal outcome” [1]. This can include any stage of drug use starting from the prescribing process, all through dispensing, administration and possible adverse events. The interest in DRPs was greatly stimulated by the report of the Institute of Medicine “To err is human” [4], which emphasized the fact that, even though errors are inevitable yet, they can be minimized to build a safer healthcare system
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