Drug-related problems and their clinical interventions in a Ghanaian teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Errors occur frequently in the use of medicines. Pharmacists play a key role in error identification and make appropriate interventions as they work with other healthcare professionals. These error recovery roles of pharmacists contribute to patient safety. This study was to evaluate the clinical interventions made to drug-related problems at a tertiary care setting. Method: This involved a retrospective review of clinical intervention reports submitted by pharmacists working over the period January 2011 to December 2013. Results: The 24 pharmacists submitted 529 handwritten reports; of these, 448 reports had complete data. The most frequently reported drugs with error were warfarin (9.5%), potassium chloride (6.0%) and potassium citrate (5.5%). The pharmacists made 1019 clinical interventions and recommendations. The average intervention per report was 2.5 (S.D ± 0.67). The interventions and recommendations made were categorised as drug regimen change (76.1%), monitoring required (13.0%), communication (5.4%), counselling required (5.0%) and adverse drug reporting (0.6%). Majority (90.5%) of the recommendations and interventions made by pharmacists were accepted and implemented. Monitoring-required based interventions were significantly more likely to be accepted (130 vs 38; p <0.0001). Conclusion: Pharmacists played a role in drug error recovery and prevented medication errors from reaching patients. These error mitigation efforts of pharmacists can serve as a priority in patient safety strategy.

Effectiveness Of Medication Reviews In Identification And Management Of Medication Related Problems By Clinical Pharmacist

“…This type of error occurred mainly due to pen writing habits of the physician. Our study regarding prescribing error identification coincides with Acheampong F (2016) 17 where they reported that, majority of drug errors were due to Prescription habit. Our study identified Drug duplication as another major MRP.…”

Drug-related problems and its predictors among hospitalized heart failure patients at Jimma Medical Center, South West Ethiopia: prospective interventional study

“…This result was comparable with studies carried out in Southern India and Karnataka, India, which revealed that clinical pharmacists' acceptance was about 97% and 96%, respectively [ 36 , 37 ]. Moreover, a study carried out in Ghana, South Western Saudi Arabia, Northern Cyprus, and India showed that clinical pharmacists' intervention and acceptance rates were about two-thirds of the study population [ 38 – 40 ].…”

Drug‐related problems among hospitalized hypertensive and heart failure patients and physician acceptance of pharmacists' interventions at a teaching hospital in Ghana

“…Acheampong et al have shown similar findings in Ghana. 19 In a prospective study of heart failure patients at a teaching hospital in Ethiopia, Niriayo et al reported anticoagulants among the drugs most frequently implicated in DRPs. 27 A review of DRPs has shown that the use of anticoagulants is associated with a higher occurrence of DRPs.…”

“…26 Although antibiotics have been found to be frequently implicated in DRPs, 20 cardiovascular drugs including blood pressure lowering medicines, statins, and antithrombotics have also shown a potential to frequently account for DRPs. 19,23,27,34 Furthermore, the number of drugs prescribed, demographic factors such as age and sex, drugs with a narrow therapeutic index, or renal elimination are likely to influence the frequency of DRPs. 19,23,25,34 Although DRPs are likely to occur in cardiovascular disease patients, 27,29,35 the frequency and type of DRPs are likely to vary depending on the method used to detect errors or ADRs (systematic screening of patients vs. chart review or spontaneous reporting) and the clinical departments or wards where studies are conducted.…”

“…DRPs have been associated with emergency department visits and hospitalization at internal medicine departments 17,18 . DRPs arise from prescribing, dispensing, and administration of medication 19–22 …”