TITLE:
Impact of a Clinical Pharmacist in the General Hospital: An Egyptian Trial
AUTHORS:
Nirmeen A. Sabry, Maggie M. Abbassi
KEYWORDS:
Egypt, Medication Review, Intervention, Drug Related Problems
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.5 No.6,
June
19,
2014
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.