PS-058 Evaluation of clinical pharmacists’ interventions in a cardiology department

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have reported that clinical pharmacists improve medication safety. A clinical pharmacy team (1 senior pharmacist, 1 junior pharmacist, 7 student pharmacists) was deployed in cardiology units (79 beds) to develop medication reconciliation (MR), identify medication errors (ME) and optimise patients’ pharmacotherapy.PurposeThe aim of this study was to describe and analyse pharmacists’ interventions in cardiology units over 9 month and to evaluate their impact on the management of cardiovascular diseases.Material and methodsThis work was a prospective, non-randomised, observational study performed between December 2015 and August 2016. Interventions were made during MR or during the prescriptions analysis in cardiology (1 intensive care, and 2 clinical units). Analysis criteria were number and type of ME, proportions of drugs involved in ME and the physicians’ acceptance rate. A focus on cardiovascular ME was made to highlight interventions about management of heart failure (HF) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS).ResultsA total of 532 interventions were performed for 339 patients. Mean (median) age was 70.4 (72) years. The 3 most frequent types of ME were incorrect dose (overdosage (107; 20.1%) and underdosage (96; 18%)), untreated indication (178; 33.5%) and inappropriate form of administration (52; 9.8%). 48.5% of pharmacists’ interventions were identified by MR. The percentage of intervention accepted was 98.2% and concerned mostly treatments of the cardiovascular system (137; 25.8%), alimentary tract and metabolism (94; 17.7%), and nervous system (80; 15%). In the cardiovascular system, the most prevalent drugs therapy involved were statins (35; 25.6%), ACE inhibitors (21; 15.3%) and beta-blockers (18; 13.1%). 39 (28.5%) and 31 (22.6%) of interventions for cardiovascular drugs improved HF and ACS therapies, respectively.ConclusionThese results highlight a positive impact of the pharmacy team on reduction of ME. Prescription analysis and MR are 2 key points in avoiding medication discrepancies. The pharmacist has become a key member in the cardiology team. They are involved in therapeutic strategy, and most of the interventions concerned cardiovascular drugs. Moreover, half of these interventions involved treatment of HF and ACS, so pharmacists can improve the management of these chronic diseases.References and/or acknowledgementsAcknowledgements to cardiology teams.No conflict of interest

Quantifying Clinical Pharmacist Activities in a Tertiary Care Hospital Using Key Performance Indicators

“…Most of these interventions were accepted by the medical team (91.5%), the result of which is similar to what has been reported in other studies. 10,11 One study that was conducted between 2002 and 2003 in our organization looked at the impact of clinical pharmacists in a cardiac surgery intensive care unit and found that the acceptance rate of clinical pharmacists' interventions during the study period was 94.3%. 10 Other information collected in our study shows the extent of clinical pharmacists' involvement in, contribution to, and development of a comprehensive patient care plan.…”