Pharmaceutical actuation in intensive care units: contributions to rational use of drugs

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate the performance of the clinical pharmacist in Adult Intensive Care Units of a special-sized hospital, wherein pharmacotherapeutic follow-up is the main activity developed by the pharmacist residing in intensive care. Methods: This is an observational, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out in Adult Intensive Care Units, from March to June 2018. Data were collected from the Clinical Pharmacy Service, by means of already established indicators. Results: During the study period, 958 patients were admitted and 664 were included in the study. Regarding the place of hospitalization, 57% of the patients included in the study were hospitalized in the Post-operative Intensive Care Unit and 43% in the Clinical Intensive Care Unit. The suggested interventions were well accepted (99.6%), and in the clinical intensive care unit, the number of interventions performed and the cost saving were higher in all months of the study. The main interventions were drugs inclusion / withdrawal, dose reduction, infusion time and dilution. Of the interventions accepted, 25% generated cost savings, saving R $ 163,656.40 in total, and the types of interventions related to the most frequent cost saving were withdrawal of the drug (58.5%), dose reduction (32.6%) and change of pharmaceutical formula (3.0%). Conclusion: The performance of the clinical pharmacist in intensive care units was well accepted by the medical team. The various possibilities of interventions contribute to rational use of drugs and, in addition, some of these pharmaceutical interventions have a direct impact on cost savings.