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- Title
Pharmacists reducing medication risk in medical outpatient clinics: a retrospective study of 18 clinics.
- Authors
Snoswell, Centaine L.; De Guzman, Keshia R.; Barras, Michael
- Abstract
Background: The role of pharmacists in hospital inpatient settings is well recognised; however, pharmacists are relatively new to outpatient clinic settings in Australia. Evidence to justify the clinical effectiveness of pharmacists, in terms of identifying and resolving medication‐related problems in an outpatient setting in Australia is limited. Aims: To investigate the clinical effectiveness of outpatient clinic pharmacists across multiple medical disciplines. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted by auditing medical records for patients who had an outpatient clinic pharmacist consult between June 2019 and February 2020 in a large quaternary hospital. All pharmacist recommendations targeting a medication‐related problem were audited. Recommendations were considered 'resolved' if accepted and actioned by the patient and/or a clinician. The resolved recommendations were risk rated using a validated tool for medication‐related patient harm. Results: There were 18 clinic pharmacist roles across multiple medical disciplines, of which 46 pharmacists conducted outpatient consults. A total of 7599 consults was conducted and a purposeful random sample of 572 (8%) consults was audited for 552 unique patients. There were 399 recommendations recorded in the notes by clinic pharmacists, a mean (standard deviation) of 0.95 (0.97) per patient. Of these, 328 (82%) were resolved; 269 (82%) were classified as low or moderate risk and 59 (18%) were classified as high‐risk recommendations. Conclusions: Clinic pharmacists in multidisciplinary outpatient clinics are effective at identifying and resolving medication‐related problems. Our research demonstrated that 18% of these resolved recommendations prevented a high‐risk medication‐related harm event.
- Subjects
PREVENTION of drug side effects; EVALUATION of medical care; AUDITING; OCCUPATIONAL roles; SCIENTIFIC observation; OUTPATIENT medical care; CLINICS; RETROSPECTIVE studies; ACQUISITION of data; MEDICATION therapy management; CLINICAL medicine; MEDICAL records; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; EVALUATION
- Publication
Internal Medicine Journal, 2023, Vol 53, Issue 1, p95
- ISSN
1444-0903
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/imj.15504