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

Pharmaceutical Science-Pharmacy practice for good health promotion

Abstract

Medication  related problems  (MRPs)  are any preventable  events that lead to inappropriate  medication  use or patient harm. Clinical pharmacist  plays a key role in various clinical activities  of hospital and contributes  to improve  the quality of medication  use and patient safety with an aim to provide better patient outcome. Hence our aim in this study is to  identify, classify and develop management strategy  of  various  MRPs  in  a  tertiary  care  teaching  hospital  and  report  them  to  concerned  doctors  to  modify  the  drug  therapy accordingly.  Out of total collected cases; prescribing errors (21%) and adverse drug reaction (ADR) (35%) were most common, followed by drug duplication (11%), improper drug selection (8%), untreated indication (7%), double dosing (6%), wrong dose (5%) were frequently repeated  drug related issues. Other MRPs were inappropriate  dose, omission  error, drug without  indication  and drug insufficiency  with very  minimal  appearance  which  also  satisfy  the  PCNE  categorization  of drug  related  problems.      We  found  that  Anticonvulsants  and Antibiotics  were  frequently  identified  prescription  medicine  to  develop  MRPs..  Cerebrovascular  accidents  and  Epilepsy  were  mostly involved in disease where MRPs were seen frequently. Standard management  guidelines  were also described to the doctors for individual MRP  cases. Certain  MRPs  were  frequently  appearing  and  clinical  pharmacists  should  be  alert  enough  to  address  them  with  proper management  strategy.  Our  study  highlights  the  significant  role  of  clinical  pharmacist’s  intervention  in  identification  of  MRPs,  which generally remain unidentified unless harm occurs. This study also shows a new avenue of drug therapy optimization by providing proper medication  information  to  overcome  identified  MRP  issues  to  enhance  patient  safety  and  care.    Our  role  was  highly  accepted  and appreciated by various doctors.