Analysis of drugrelated problems in three departm

Authors: Rebekka Lenssen Axel Heidenreich Jörg B Schulz Christian Trautwein Christina Fitzner Ulrich Jaehde Albrecht Eisert

Publish Date: 2015/10/28

Volume: 38, Issue: 1, Pages: 119-126

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Abstract

For each of a total of 306 patients a pharmacist conducted an extended medication history performed medication reconciliation conducted medication safety checks and if drugrelated problems were discovered gave valid recommendations to the attending healthcare team Drugrelated problems were classified using the APSDoc system For statistical analyses SAS® 913 SAS Institute Cary NC USA was applied The project was approved by the local ethics committeeOn average 23 drugrelated problems per patient were documented for all three departments Drugrelated problems were found in each category of the APSDoc system The most pronounced drugrelated problems found were drug–drug interactions 346  37  of the identified drugrelated problems occurred before hospital admission 27  during transitional care and 36  on the ward Subgroup analysis revealed specific drugrelated problem patterns for each clinical department The number of drugrelated problems was found to be associated with the number of drugs and ageDrugrelated problems frequently occur in all investigated clinical departments A holistic pharmaceutical care service could be an option to address this issue In case of limited resources individual drugrelated problem patterns can be used as a basis for a tailored pharmaceutical care service As number of drugs and age have been shown to be significant risk factors it is crucial that the healthcare team including the pharmacist pays special attention to elderly patients and those with polymedication

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