Identification of variables influencing pharmaceutical interventions to improve medication review efficiency

• Published in: International journal of clinical pharmacy Vol. 40; no. 5; pp. 1175 - 1179
• Main Authors: Cornuault, Lauriane, Mouchel, Victorine, Phan Thi, Thuy-Tan, Beaussier, Hélène, Bézie, Yvonnick, Corny, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-10-2018
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; France; Humans; Internal Medicine; Linear Models; Male; Medication Errors - prevention & control; Medication Therapy Management - organization & administration; Medication Therapy Management - standards; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Pharmacists - organization & administration; Pharmacy; Pharmacy Service, Hospital - organization & administration; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - standards; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data; Professional Role; Prospective Studies; Research Article; Young Adult; France; Prioritization; Medication review; France; Hospital pharmacy; Clinical pharmacy
• ISSN: 2210-7703; 2210-7711
• DOI: 10.1007/s11096-018-0668-y

Background
Clinical pharmacists’ involvement has improved patients’ care, by suggesting therapeutic optimizations. However, budget restrictions require a prioritization of these activities to focus resources on patients more at risk of medication errors.
Objective
The aim of our study was to identify variables influencing the formulation of pharmaceutical to improve medication review efficiency.
Setting
This study was conducted in medical wards of a 643-acute beds hospital in Paris, France.
Methods
All hospital medical prescriptions of all patients admitted within four medical wards (cardiology, rheumatology, neurology, vascular medicine) were analyzed. The study was conducted in each ward for 2 weeks, during 4 weeks. For each patient, variables prospectively collected were: age, gender, weight, emergency admission, number of high-alert medications and of total drugs prescribed, care unit, serum creatinine. Number of pharmaceutical interventions (PIs) and their type were reported.
Main outcome measures
Variables influencing the number of pharmaceutical interventions during medication review were identified using simple and multiple linear regressions.
Results
A total of 2328 drug prescriptions (303 patients, mean age 70.6 years-old) were analyzed. Mean number of hospital drug prescriptions was 7.9. A total of 318 PIs were formulated. Most frequent PIs were drug omission (n = 88, 27.7%), overdosing (n = 69, 21.7%), and underdosing (n = 51, 16.0%). Among variables studied, age, serum creatinine level, number of high-alert medications prescribed and total number of drugs prescribed were significantly associated with the formulation of pharmaceutical interventions (adjusted R
2
 = 0.34).
Conclusions
This study identified variables (age, serum creatinine level, number of high-alert medication, number of prescribed drugs) that may help institutions/pharmacists target their reviews towards patients most likely to require pharmacist interventions.